Server device, client device, information processing system, information processing method, and program

ABSTRACT

An information processing method of an information processing system including a client device functioning as a client and a server device functioning as a server which are capable of communication via a network, includes the steps of: at the server device, managing format identification information provided so as to be unique for each content data within the range of each data format, corresponding to the contents of each content; at the client device, causing execution of communication via network, for specifying a content, as to the server device; at the server device, transmitting, to the client device, format identification information correlated with a specified content in response to specification of a content via network from the client device; and at the client device, managing the received and obtained format identification information as corresponding to the specified content.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese PatentApplication JP 2007-289691 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Nov.7, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information processing systemarranged such that music distribution or file sharing or the like, forexample, can be performed over a network, a server device and a clientdevice which are components of the information processing system. Thepresent invention also relates to an information processing methodcorresponding to the information processing system, server device, andclient device, and further to a program corresponding to the informationprocessing system, server device, and client device.

2. Description of the Related Art

Widespread digitization of contents has led to multiple formats existingas sound source types and forms, such as a user being able to purchasean audio content for example recorded in packaged media such as a CD(Compact Disc) and also to download exactly the same content by musicdistribution over a network. Also, packaged media sound sources are notrestricted to the PCM format used for recording CDs, and there are alsoformats such as DSD used for recording SACDs (Super Audio CD). Also,music distribution often involves audio compression encoding, takinginto consideration network traffic and reduction in download time, theformat of the audio contents such as compression encoding method, andbit rate (compression rate) and so forth often differ from onedistribution service to another. That is to say, exactly the samedigital content may have varied formats thereof in various forms,including packaged media, music distribution, and so on.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above situation leads to certain problems, one of which is troublein the event that a content playing device which a user has is notarranged to handle the format of a content which the user has obtained.A solution has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2006-31233 wherein user registration is performed inwhich user information and content information is correlated, userregistration authentication is performed in response to user access, anda module for converting a content according to a format requested by theuser, or a post-conversion content converted according to the formatrequested by the user, is provided. With this configuration, the userdoes not need to purchase a different device even if the format isdifferent.

It has been realized that there it is desirable to solve issuesresulting from the same contents having varied sound sources andformats. For example, applications and systems (audio content usagesystems) using digital audio contents usually are restricted to beingable to handle only a part of sound sources and formats of audiocontents. Let us say that a user owns a digital audio content of aformat which the audio content usage system does not handle, but theuser wants to use this audio digital content with the audio contentusage system. One way to deal with this is for the user to obtain adigital audio content which is the same as the one already owned, but ofwhich the format can be handled by the audio content usage system.However, this is troublesome for the user, and furthermore, if thecontent is not free of charge, this will place a monetary burden on theuser.

Thus, it has been realized that there is demand for an environmentwherein content can be handled as the same as much as possible even ifthe format is different, just as long as the content is the same.

An information processing system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes: a client device functioning as a client; aserver device functioning as a server, can capable of communication withthe client device via a network; a first identification informationmanagement unit at the server device configured to manage formatidentification information provided so as to be unique for each contentdata within the range of each data format, corresponding to the contentsof each content; a content specifying unit at the client deviceconfigured to cause execution of communication via network, forspecifying a content, as to the server device; an identificationinformation transmitting unit at the server device configured totransmit, to the client device, format identification informationcorrelated with a specified content in response to specification of acontent via network from the client device; and a second identificationinformation management unit at the client device configured to managethe received and obtained format identification information ascorresponding to the content specified by the content specifying unit.

A server device according to an embodiment of the present inventionincludes: a communication unit configured to perform communication via anetwork; an identification information management unit configured tomanage format identification information provided so as to be unique foreach content data within the range of each data format, corresponding tothe contents of each content; and an identification informationtransmitting unit configured to transmit, to a client device, formatidentification information correlated with a specified content inresponse to specification of a content via network from the clientdevice.

A client device according to an embodiment of the present inventionincludes: a communication unit configured to perform communication via anetwork; a content specifying unit configured to cause execution ofcommunication via network, for specifying a content, as to a serverdevice; and an identification information management unit configured toreceive and obtain format identification information which isidentification information corresponding to a specified contenttransmitted from the server device in response to the communication forspecifying the content, and which is provided so as to be unique foreach content data within the range of each data format, and manage thereceived and obtained format identification information as correspondingto the specified content.

Note that in the above, the term “content” or “contents” is an abstractconcept equivalent to the video and/or audio therein, and “content data”refers to data for actually playing the video and/or audio which is theabove “content” or “contents”.

With the above configuration, at the server device, formatidentification information corresponding to each content is held andmanaged. Thereupon, the server device transmits, to the client device,format identification information correlated with the specified contentin response to specification of a content from the client device. At theclient device, the transmitted format identification information isreceived and managed by correlated with a specified content. Thus, theclient device which manages the format identification information canperform predetermined processing regarding contents, using multiple setsof content data sharing the same content of contents (having the samecontent of contents) but with different data formats.

That is to say, the above configuration is capable of processingcontents having a certain content of contents with higher degree offreedom, crossing differences in sound source type, format, platform,and so forth, and accordingly an environment can be obtained whereincontents having different formats can be handled as the same content aslong as the contents of the contents are the same.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a musicediting/sharing system corresponding to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a basic usage form of a musicediting/sharing system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, and procedure examples of system operations correspondingthereto;

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating the flow of subsidiarycontent creation which a user terminal device according to theembodiment executes;

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating the flow of subsidiarycontent creation which a user terminal device according to theembodiment executes;

FIGS. 5A through 5C are diagrams illustrating a usage form example ofediting material contents at the time of creating a subsidiary content;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of anoriginal audio content server;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of asubsidiary content server;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of acommunication content server;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of auser terminal device;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of information contents tobe stored in an HDD of the user terminal device;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a program configuration exampleserving as a content editing management tool of a music editing/sharingapplication;

FIG. 12 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration exampleof a subsidiary content playback control file;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of usageprimary content information in the subsidiary content playback controlfile;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of usageediting material content information in the subsidiary content playbackcontrol file;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of the content of playbackcontrol information, in the subsidiary content playback control file;

FIG. 16 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration exampleof a primary content file;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing procedureswhereby the music editing/sharing application reflects usage agreementrange settings of editing material contents on a user interface, at thetime of subsidiary content editing processing;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing proceduresup to the music editing/sharing application creating a subsidiarycontent playback control file as subsidiary content editing processing;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating an example of uploading of asubsidiary content by the user terminal device, and processingprocedures at the subsidiary content server in accordance therewith;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an example of uploading of asubsidiary content by the user terminal device, and processingprocedures at the subsidiary content server in accordance therewith;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing proceduresof playing a subsidiary content by the user terminal device;

FIG. 22 is a diagram schematically illustrating content ID managementaccording to an embodiment, and the procedures within a system relatingto searching of usage primary contents based on the content IDmanagement;

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of aprimary content ID database;

FIG. 24 is a diagram schematically illustrating a form of the way inwhich a subsidiary content playback control file and ID set informationare correlated and managed at a user terminal device;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof a primary content ID management server;

FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing proceduresexecuted by the user terminal device and primary content ID managementserver with relation to the content ID management in an embodiment;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing proceduresfor correlating and managing subsidiary contents and ID sets at the userterminal device;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing proceduresof searching processing for usage primary contents to be used forplayback of subsidiary contents; and

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configurationas a modification, for playing uploaded audio content data.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a basic configuration example of an informationprocessing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.Note that this basic system configuration illustrated in the drawing isconfigured of terminal devices and servers which can be viewed asdirectly relating to usage of service by users. A system according to anactual embodiment takes a configuration further having servers relatingto ID management and the like, as compared with the basic systemconfiguration shown in this drawing, but this point will be describedlater.

As shown in this drawing, the information processing system according tothe present embodiment can first be viewed as being formed by connectinga original audio content server 1, a subsidiary content server 2, acommunication server 3, and a great number of user terminal devices 4,connected by a network NW. The information processing system accordingto the present embodiment realizes a music distribution/sharing systemby such a basic device configuration. That is to say, so-called musicdistribution (distribution of original audio contents (primarycontents)) and sharing of contents created by users (subsidiarycontents) among users, on a network, are realized.

The original audio content server 1 stores and manages in a database agreat number of original audio content data in a predetermined format.The “original audio content” as used here is audio data of apredetermined format whereby the content can be played by playback. Theoriginal audio content of a vast number of original audio contents whichis sued for editing of a subsidiary content is called a primary content.

The original audio content server 1 in this case is configured so as toexternally transmit audio data which is specified original audiocontents to the requesting user terminal devices 4, in response todownload requests from the user terminal devices 4 via the network.

Note that the audio data in the form of original audio contents in theexample here is, tunes or the like which artists and the like haveplayed, provided from an affiliated record label. Additionally, originaltunes created by general users and so forth, are also included as thecontents.

The subsidiary content server 2 is capable of storing and managing agreat number of subsidiary content playback control files which is dataserving as subsidiary contents, in a database. As described later, asubsidiary content playback control file is uploaded from a userterminal device 4 to the subsidiary content server 2 via the network.The subsidiary content server 2 stores the subsidiary content playbackcontrol file uploaded in this way, handling as subsidiary contents.Also, a specified subsidiary content playback control file istransmitted and output to a requesting user terminal device 4, inresponse to a download request from the user terminal device 4 via thenetwork.

The communication server 3 is a server having functions for providinginter-user communication services, such as for example, SNS (SocialNetworking Service), services for individuals to put information outwhich is also widely recognized as CGM (Consumer Generated Media) suchas blogs, and so forth.

A user terminal device 4 is a network device which a general user uses,and actually is a personal computer provided with network communicationfunctions such as LAN or the like, for example. These user terminaldevices 4 have installed an application program serving as a musicediting/sharing application 100, as described later. The user operatesthis music editing/sharing application 100, and thus is enabled toperform such as downloading original audio contents from the originalaudio content server 1, creating new subsidiary content due to editingwork based on the downloaded original audio contents (primary content)and subsidiary content, uploading the created subsidiary content (i.e.,a subsidiary content playback control file) to the subsidiary contentserver 2, downloading subsidiary content (subsidiary content playbackcontrol file) from the subsidiary content server 2, using SNS services,writing/browsing blogs using the communication server 3, and so on.

Next, an example of basic operations of the information processingsystem according to the present embodiment assuming the configurationshown in FIG. 1 described above, will be described with reference toFIG. 2, following a basic usage form example by a user of a userterminal device 4. Note that in the description in FIG. 2, descriptionwill be made following the numbers of procedures and operationsindicated by alphanumeric characters in the brackets [ ]. Also, here,user terminal devices 4A and 4B are shown as being used by two users Aand B, respectively, as user terminal devices 4. In this drawing, thenetwork NW which exists between the original audio content server 1,subsidiary content server 2, communication server 3, and user terminaldevices 4 is omitted from the drawings.

Procedure 1

This Procedure 1 is one method for obtaining data of original audiocontents to be used as primary contents, described later.

First, the user A searches the user terminal device 4A (musicediting/sharing application 100) for original audio contents which theuser wants to download as primary contents, and performs operations fordownloading the searched original audio contents. In response to thisoperation, the user terminal device 4A transmits a download request tothe original audio content server 1.

Now, we will say that with the music distribution/sharing systemaccording to the present embodiment, there are cases wherein thedownloading of original audio contents is charged for, and cases ofbeing free.

In the case of being charged for, the user A performs proper purchasingprocedures at the time of transmitting a download request to theoriginal audio content server 1. As far as purchasing procedures go, forexample, this may be payment procedures for charges set individually inincrements of tunes or in increments of albums, or may be subscriptions.Also, in the event that original audio contents are provided free ofcharge, there are no purchasing procedures for the user A.

Upon receiving a download request as described above, the original audiocontent server 1 first performs authentication regarding the requestinguser, confirmation of payment of charges (in the case that the tunedownload is charged for) and so forth, and determines whether or notthis is a legitimate download request. In the event that determinationis made that this is a legitimate download, the original audio contentsspecified at the time of the download request are searched for from theoriginal audio contents stored within itself, and data of the searchedoriginal audio contents is sent out to the requesting user terminaldevice 4. Note that the actual entity of the original audio contentwhich the original audio content server 1 stores while managing in adatabase here is of a file structure wherein a main portion (mainportion information) of audio data of a predetermined format havingcontents of a tune serving as the primary content (data for reproducingthe substantial contents which are in the form of primary contents),includes various types of metadata related thereto (tune title, artist,title of album to which tune belongs, genre, data format, data size,etc.). That is to say, in the description of the present embodiment, wewill say that the original audio content data is of a structure whereinthe digital audio data whereby the content of the tune can be obtainedby performing audio playback output is the main constituent.

The original audio content data sent out from the original audio contentserver 1 as described above is received at the user terminal device 4A.The user terminal device 4A (music editing/sharing application 100)stores and saves this received original audio content data in a storagemedium such as an internal HDD or the like. The music editing/sharingapplication 100 has functions for managing the original audio contentdata stored and saved in this way according to a predetermined formbased on the metadata for example, and executing playback control inaccordance with user operations.

Thus, with this Procedure 1, data of original audio contents stored inthe original audio content server 1 can be downloaded to user terminaldevices 4 so as to acquire data of primary contents.

While omitted from the drawings here, the data of the original audiocontents to be used as primary contents may be acquired by methods otherthan downloading. For example, original audio content data can beobtained by reading out digital audio data recorded in packaged mediaand saved in an HDD 48. Also, original audio content data can beobtained by converting an analog sound source into digital audio signalsand acquiring via a data interface such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) orIEEE 1394.

Also, while only one original audio content server 1 is shown in FIG. 2,in actual practice, downloads can be made from multiple original audiocontent servers operated by various distribution services, recordlabels, and so forth.

Note that the primary content data stored and saved at the user terminaldevice 4A can be played by the music editing/sharing application 100,and listened to with an audio device connected to the user terminaldevice 4A, for example.

Procedure 2

Now, generally, with music distribution via network, usage followingdownloading is restricted to use such as playback, with a certain levelof copy restrictions of digital audio data being provided. In otherwords, a user who has obtained audio contents by downloading is normallyonly permitted usage within a certain range, and is not provided withrights to create tunes as secondary creations by performing editingbased on the obtained audio contents that have been acquired, forexample.

In comparison to this, with the present embodiment, the original audiocontent downloaded from the original audio content server 1 is audiocontent regarding which using as material for secondary creation withina range set beforehand (secondary usage, secondary editing) has beenpermitted, as a matter of principle, i.e., usable as primary content.Note that secondary usage of the primary content in the presentembodiment is set within the range of rights which the writer of thetune as the primary content has authorized.

The music editing/sharing application 100 is capable of creating audiocontents as a new tune, by executing editing processing in accordancewith user operations to perform secondary usage of the original audiocontent (primary content) managed in itself (stored and saved) asediting material. Also, at the time of editing such audio contents forexample, plug-in data corresponding to predetermined special effectsprovided at an effect database 7 can be obtained, and editing performedusing this. Also, in the same way, audio material provided at a materialdatabase 8 can be obtained, and editing performed by adding this. Notethat the effect database 7 and material database 8 may be situated on anetwork, or may exist locally on the user terminal device 4A.

Also, here, audio contents created in this way are distinguished fromprimary contents to which the original audio contents correspond, bybeing called subsidiary content. As for the procedure (operation) 2, acertain subsidiary content is created by operating operations as to theuser terminal device 4A on which the music editing/sharing application100 is running.

Note that the actual entity of the data serving as the subsidiarycontent created by this procedure (operation) 2 is not the digital audiodata having the tune content as with the original audio content (primarycontent), but rather is generated with playback control information asthe main constituent thereof. That is to say, this is playback controlinformation describing specifications of effects (special effects), suchas instructions of what portion of the digital audio data serving as thesecondarily used audio contents (editing material contents) is to beplayed and output at which timing.

That is to say, as for the flow of secondary editing with the musicediting/sharing application 100, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 3,the editing material contents A, B, and C which are objects of secondaryuse are used, and subsidiary content playback control information madeup of playback control information, rather than being made up of audiodata, is created and output, as the results of editing processing havingbeen performed in accordance with user operations.

The subsidiary content data serving as this playback control information(i.e., the subsidiary content playback control information) can be mademarkedly smaller in data size as compared to audio data, for example.Accordingly, the storage capacity of the storage medium such as the HDDor the like to store the subsidiary content data at the subsidiarycontent server 2 can be conserved and effectively used. Also, the amountof transmitted data is smaller at the time of transmission/reception ofthe subsidiary content data on the network, and accordingly does notmake traffic heavier, for example.

Performing editing with already-existing tunes as material, as with thesecondary editing with the present embodiment, to create a secondarywork as a new tune is called sampling, mash-up, and so forth, withprofessional musicians and the like also often performing this. In lightof such, it is naturally conceivable that there is desire and demand ofgeneral people to create tunes as secondary works in the same way.However, in reality, it is extremely difficult for general people tocreate tunes as secondary works upon having properly cleared copyrightissues.

Accordingly, as for the music distribution/sharing system according tothe present embodiment, an attempt has been made to increase theentertainment nature for the user, by first enabling general users tolegally perform secondary editing using distributed tunes.

To this end, the original audio content (primary content) has beenpositioned as audio contents regarding which a user which has downloaded(purchased) is permitted to use secondarily in the range of rights whichthe copyright holder has authorized. That is to say, the musicdistribution service with the original audio content server 1 accordingto the present embodiment is for distributing audio contents regardingwhich secondary usage has been proactively permitted.

Procedure 3

The subsidiary content playback control file serving as the subsidiarycontent created by the user A as described in Procedure 2 above is savedonly at the user terminal device 4A, with processing being performed bythe playback functions of the music editing/sharing application 100 asdescribed later with FIG. 4, and audio of the tune contents can beplayed as the subsidiary content.

With this in mind, the present embodiment further enables users who havethe services of the music editing/sharing application 100 according tothe present embodiment to share the subsidiary contents created byusers, by making public on a network.

Let us say that the user A desires to share subsidiary contents createdby the above Procedure 2. Accordingly, the user A performs predeterminedoperations as to the music editing/sharing application 100, so as toupload the subsidiary contents created by the Procedure 2 to thesubsidiary content server 2. This is Procedure 3.

As described above, the entity of the data serving as the subsidiarycontents is a subsidiary content playback control file. Accordingly, byuploading a subsidiary content as this Procedure 3, the user terminaldevice 4A (music editing/sharing application 100) transmits and outputsa subsidiary content playback control file along with an upload request.

Procedure 4

Upon receiving the upload request as described above, the subsidiarycontent server 2 saves the subsidiary content playback control filewhich is data serving as subsidiary content transmitted along with thisrequest, as a principle, so as to be newly registered in a database. Atthis time, the subsidiary content server 2 sets the saving locationthereof (e.g., represented by an address such as a URL (Uniform ResourceLocator)), and then performs saving processing of the subsidiary contentplayback control file and registration thereof in the database.

Note that the subsidiary content server 2 has publishing functions withregard to the subsidiary content registered in the database. That is tosay, the subsidiary content server 2 can publish so as to present a listof subsidiary contents registered in the database for example, inresponse to access from the user terminal device 4 (musicediting/sharing application 100). Also, the subsidiary contentspublished in this way can be transmitted and output in response todownload requests from the user terminal device 4 (music editing/sharingapplication 100), as described later.

Procedure 5

Upon saving and managing the subsidiary content playback control file asdescribed above, the subsidiary content server 2 transmits, to theupload requesting user terminal device 4A, an address indicating thesaving location of the subsidiary content (subsidiary content playbackcontrol file) that has been uploaded (saving location address), tonotify the saving location thereof.

The music editing/sharing application 100 of the user terminal device 4Areceives the above saving location address, and stores and saves, andmanages this in a predetermined storage medium. The user A can, at anytime, output the saving location address of the subsidiary content whichhe has uploaded by Procedure 2, by performing a predetermined operationas to the music editing/sharing application 100.

Procedure 6

The user A which has obtained the saving location address as describedabove can announce to other users in several ways that his ownsubsidiary contents have been published at the subsidiary content server2.

Procedure 6 corresponds to one of the publishing announcement methods,and is carried out by accessing the communication server 3 as shown inthe drawing, and writing to his own page in an SNS, or his own blog orthe like, for example, that the subsidiary contents created by himselfhave been published. At this time, the URL serving as the savinglocation address obtained in Procedure 5 is also copied in so as to bewritten in.

Procedure 7

Upon a user B for example operating the music editing/sharingapplication 100 installed in the user terminal device 4B after the userA has written in as described above with Procedure 6 and accessing andbrowsing the page of the user A in the SNS or the blog of the user A, heknows that subsidiary content of the user A has been newly published.That is to say, in this case, the user B has indirectly received theannouncement regarding the new publishing of the subsidiary contentcreated by the user A, via the SNS or blog. Procedure 7 indicates suchindirect announcement of subsidiary content publishing being performed.

Procedure 8

Procedure 8 will be given as another way for publishing announcement. Asfor this Procedure 8, the user B side is notified that the subsidiarycontent created by the user A has been disclosed by creating andtransmitting mail using a mail function provided to the SNS, forexample. This is a more direct form of announcement, as compared to theannouncement according to the flow of Procedure 6 and Procedure 7.

Also, in the event of announcing by e-mail and so forth in this way, thesaving location address of the subsidiary content is copied into thebody for example, so as to be listed.

Procedure 9

In this way, the user B can indirectly or directly receive announcementand know that the subsidiary content created by the user A has beennewly published. In the event that the user B desires to listen to thesubsidiary content of the user A that has been newly published, first,the subsidiary content is downloaded by the music editing/sharingapplication 100. This is Procedure 9.

At the time of downloading the subsidiary content, a clicking operationor the like is performed as to the saving location address shown as alink in the body of the SNS diary page or blog, for example. Note thatat the time of writing to an SNS diary page or blog, in the event theaddress information such as a URL is written in, this text stringportion is presented as a link.

In response to performing a clicking operation as to the saving locationaddress as described above, the music editing/sharing application 100accesses this saving location address. That is to say, of the addresseson the subsidiary content server 2, an address indicating the locationwhere the file of the subsidiary content which the user A has createdand published (subsidiary content playback control file) has been saved,is accessed. The subsidiary content playback control file saved at thatsaving location is then sent out to the user terminal device 4B. Thesubsidiary content playback control file set out in this way as receivedat the user terminal device 4B, and saving and management is performedunder control of the music editing/sharing application 100. Accordingly,subsidiary content is downloaded.

Procedure 10

Upon the subsidiary content of the user A being saved and managed asdescribed above, playing of the subsidiary content by the musicediting/sharing application 100 of the user terminal device 4B becomesavailable. Procedure 10 is a procedure for playing output of the tuneserving as the subsidiary content as sound, in accordance with playbackinstruction operations as to the music editing/sharing application 100by the user B.

Now, FIG. 4 shows a playback concept of subsidiary contents with themusic editing/sharing application 100.

At the time of playing the subsidiary content, first, the musicediting/sharing application 100 interprets the subsidiary contentplayback control file which is the actual data. As a result of thisinterpretation, recognition can be made regarding at least which audiocontents have been used as the editing material contents, and whichportion of the editing material contents have been used in what mannerat what playing time, and so forth, for example. Note that in thisdiagram, the audio contents of the editing material contents A, B, andC, in accordance with FIG. 3 described earlier, have been used asediting material. Following the recognition results thereof, the musicediting/sharing application 100 at least uses the actual audio dataserving as the editing material contents A, B, and C, to executeplayback control. Consequently, the tune contents serving as thesubsidiary content is played as sound (audio playback output of thesubsidiary content).

According to the description of FIG. 4 above, playing of the subsidiarycontent uses actual audio data serving as the audio contents used in asubsidiary manner for the subsidiary content, i.e., editing materialcontent. That is to say, in order to play subsidiary content, the actualaudio data of the editing material contents has to exist at the samelocal location as the music editing/sharing application 100, howevertemporarily. Accordingly, in the event that the editing materialcontents are not locally saved at the time of attempting to play thesubsidiary content, these should be obtained locally.

Procedure 11

Accordingly, in such a case as described above, procedures are performedfor downloading and acquiring any editing material contents which arenot locally available. Procedure 11 in FIG. 2 is a procedure to beperformed to this end in the process of playing contents with Procedure10.

As can be understood from the description so far, the editing materialcontents is actual audio data, so as a principle, the editing materialcontents are primary contents, i.e., original audio contents.Accordingly, in Procedure 11, the original audio content server 1 isaccessed and original audio contents to serve as primary contents usedfor playing the subsidiary content in this Procedure 10 but not existinglocally are downloaded. Due to this downloading, the editing materialcontents used for playing the subsidiary content all exist locally, andplayback output can be properly executed as described with FIG. 4.

As described above with Procedure 1 for example, the primary contents(original audio contents) may be made to exist locally by methods otherthan downloading, such as acquiring packaged media sound source, andthat obtained by converting an analog sound source into digital audiosignals, acquired via a data interface.

Also, several states of audio data of the primary contents (originalaudio contents) existing locally due to the downloading in Procedure 11can be conceived.

First, a form can be conceived wherein this is made to exist locally, ina state of being stored in saved as to an auxiliary storage device suchas an HDD, in the same way as with the case of a normal downloadaccording to Procedure 1. As for another, a form can be conceivedwherein this is temporarily held in a main storage device such as RAM,and is erased in response to the music editing/sharing application 100no longer being in a state wherein the playback operation of thesubsidiary content can be performed, for example. While original audiocontents which are primary contents have been described as beingbasically charged for, for example, operations can be conceived whereinin the case of temporary storage, these are free of charge, or fees areset cheaper than normal downloads, or the like.

Also, according to the description of FIG. 2 above, with creating ofsubsidiary contents according to the present embodiment, primarycontents are used as the editing material contents, but not only primarycontents but also subsidiary contents can be included as the editingmaterial contents. This point will be supplemented with reference toFIGS. 5A through 5C, which each illustrate cases of creating onesubsidiary content by editing with secondary usage of two editingmaterial contents.

First, FIG. 5A illustrates a case wherein the editing material contentsA and B are each primary contents, in the same way as with the exampleof creating subsidiary content described with FIG. 2. That is to say,this shows a case wherein subsidiary content is created by executingediting processing with a primary content A taken as editing materialcontent A, and a primary content B which is a different primary contenttaken as editing material content B. The subsidiary content in this caseincludes at least a part of the primary content A and primary content Bas for the contents thereof, as shown in the drawing. That is to say,the primary contents A and B are used as source editing material.

FIG. 5B illustrates creating a subsidiary content by editing withsecondary usage of the editing material content A which is the sameprimary content as in FIG. 5A, and editing material content C which issubsidiary content created using primary contents C and D secondarily.The subsidiary content in this case includes at least a part of theprimary content A included in the editing material content A, and atleast a part of each of the primary contents included in the editingmaterial content C, as for the tune contents thereof. That is to say,the primary contents A, C and D are used as the original editingmaterial, and accordingly, in the event of playing the subsidiarycontent shown in FIG. 5B here, the primary contents A, D, and D shouldbe locally situated.

FIG. 5C illustrates creating a subsidiary content by secondary usage ofthe two editing material contents C and D which are subsidiary contents.The subsidiary content newly created in this case includes at least apart of each of the primary contents C and D included in the editingmaterial content C, and a part of each of the primary contents E and Fincluded in the editing material content D, as for the tune contentsthereof. That is to say, the primary contents C, D, E, and F should belocally situated in the event of playing the subsidiary content shown inFIG. 5C.

Also, in the event of using subsidiary contents as editing materialcontents for creating subsidiary content as in the above FIGS. 5B and5C, first, the user performs download for example, and stores and savesat the user terminal device 4, in order to situate the subsidiarycontent serving as the editing material contents locally, in the sameway as with handling primary content as editing material content.

Note that as with FIGS. 5B and 5C, in a case of using subsidiary contenthaving multiple primary contents as the editing material thereof, asediting material contents, editing using only a part of the primarycontents out of the multiple primary contents making up the editingmaterial contents used as editing material may be added to one form ofediting. Specifically, in the case of FIG. 5B for example, editing maybe performed wherein, for the editing material content C, only theprimary content C is used of the primary contents C and D, and the otherprimary content D is not included in the post-editing contents. In thiscase, in order to play the subsidiary content newly created for example,an arrangement is sufficient wherein only the primary contents A and Cof the primary contents A, C, and D exist locally.

Also, in event of the subsidiary content server 2 performingtransmission of subsidiary content data in response to the downloadrequest for subsidiary content, in according with Procedure 9 in FIG. 2,the subsidiary content is encrypted. This encryption can be decrypted byan authorized music editing/sharing application 100, but the musicediting/sharing application 100 is arranged to operate such that onlysubsidiary content data decrypted by this encryption processing isplayed, and subsidiary content data not encrypted to begin with forexample, or subsidiary content data encrypted by another format oralgorithm, is not played. That is to say, the music editing/sharingapplication 100 only plays that downloaded and obtained from thesubsidiary content server 2 with regard to externally-obtainedsubsidiary content data.

Accordingly, for example, even in the event that users directly exchangesubsidiary content files between user terminal devices by directcommunication such as P2P (Peer-to-Peer) network communication or e-mailfile attachment or FTP (File Transport Protocol) or the like, or bydirect exchange using removable media, files obtained by users in thisway will not be properly played since there is no encryption by thesubsidiary content server 2. That is to say, with the presentembodiment, subsidiary content of others will not be properly playedunless downloaded from the subsidiary content server 2. Accordingly,with the music editing/sharing system according to the presentembodiment, protection of the rights of copyright holders of the primarycontents and subsidiary contents is implemented by avoiding circulationand reproduction of illegal subsidiary contents violating copyrightsover the network.

As can be understood from the description in FIGS. 2 through 5C, withthe music distribution/sharing system according to the presentembodiment, first, primary contents are downloadable. That is to say,users can download (purchase) and listen to and enjoy tunes which theylike by normal music distribution. Based on this, usage rights are setwhereby secondary usage to take the primary contents as editingmaterials is enabled, so users can perform editing with the primarycontents as materials and create their own works. Further, subsidiarycontents which are works created in this cay can be publicly publishedusing communication techniques such as SNSs and blogs and so forth. Thatis to say, general users can edit tunes with copyrights as material andcreate new audio contents (subsidiary contents) and further publiclypublish the subsidiary contents, in a proper manner, which hasheretofore been considered legally difficult due to problems such ascopyrights and so forth.

Also, with the present embodiment, the actual entity of the subsidiarycontents are formed having playback control information, formedincluding at least description instructing playing of primary contentswhich are the original editing material used by the subsidiary contents.

The music editing/sharing application 100 has playback functions of thesubsidiary content, but also has editing functions for creating thesubsidiary content. Accordingly, as a form of playback of the subsidiarycontents, the music editing/sharing application 100 can not only executeprocessing for simple audio playback, but also reflect the editinghistory of the subsidiary content being played in the user interface ofthe editing function described above, for example. That is to say, as abenefit of the actual content of the subsidiary content being taken asthe playback control information, the user can use the editing functionsof the music editing/sharing application 100 to find out in detail howthe downloaded subsidiary content has been edited.

Next, an example of a technical configuration for realizing the usageform and operations as the music distribution/sharing system accordingto the present embodiment described so far, will be described.

First, FIG. 6 illustrates an internal configuration example of theoriginal audio content server 1. As shown in this drawing, the originalaudio content server 1 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, anauthentication processing unit 13, a search processing unit 14, adatabase management unit 15, a settlement processing unit 16, anencryption processing unit 17, and a network interface 18.

The control unit 11 is a member which centrally executes various typesof control processing at the original audio content server 1.

The storage unit 12 is configured having an HDD or the like for example,and stores a original audio content database 12 a. The original audiocontent database 12 a is information increments wherein audio data filesserving as original audio contents to be distributed have beendatabased. Note that audio data files serving as primary contents have apredetermined format wherein, in addition to the actual data as audiodata, various types of metadata have been added.

The authentication processing unit 13 executes predeterminedauthentication processing regarding whether a valid user or not, in theevent of a download request having been made for example, using the userID and password and the like included in that request. Only in the eventthat the authentication processing results are OK is a primary contenttransmitted in response to the request.

The search processing unit 14 is a member which cooperates with thedatabase management unit 15 to access the original audio contentdatabase 12 a and execute processing for searching for intended primarycontents.

The database management unit 15 performs management with regard to theoriginal audio content database 12 a. For example, in the event that neworiginal audio contents are supplied, the new original audio contentsare registered to the original audio content database 12 a which isupdated in response thereto. Also, in the event of deleting originalaudio contents, deletion of the original audio contents and updating ofthe database correspondingly is performed in the same way.

The settlement processing unit 16 executes processing such as settlementas to payment of charges at the user side, relating to pay originalaudio contents.

The encryption processing unit 17 is a member which executes processingfor subjecting original audio contents to be transmitted from theoriginal audio content server 1 to a user terminal device 4 topredetermined encryption.

The network interface 18 is a member for performing communication viathe network NW, and reception of download requests and correspondingtransmission of original audio contents for example, are realized by thenetwork interface 18 executing communication processing in accordancewith the control of the control unit.

FIG. 7 illustrates an internal configuration example of the subsidiarycontent server 2. As shown in the drawing, the subsidiary content server2 has a control unit 21, a storage unit 22, an authentication processingunit 23, a search processing unit 24, a database managing unit 25, asaving location setting processing unit 26, an encryption processingunit 27, an unsuitable subsidiary content handling processing unit 28,and a network interface 29.

The control unit 21 is a member which centrally executes various typesof control processing in the subsidiary content server 2.

The storage unit 22 is configured having an HDD or the like for example,and stores a subsidiary content database 22 a. The subsidiary contentdatabase 22 a is information increments wherein subsidiary contentplayback control files, which are actual data serving as subsidiarycontent to be published here, have been databased.

The authentication processing unit 23 executes predeterminedauthentication processing regarding whether a valid user or not, in theevent of a download request for subsidiary content having been made forexample, using the user ID and password and the like included in thatrequest.

The search processing unit 24 is a member which cooperates with thedatabase management unit 25 to access the subsidiary content database 22a and execute processing for searching for intended subsidiary contents.

The database management unit 25 performs management with regard to thesubsidiary content database 22 a. For example, in the event that newsubsidiary contents (subsidiary content playback control files) areuploaded, the uploaded subsidiary contents are registered to thesubsidiary content database 22 a which is updated in response thereto.Also, in the event of deleting subsidiary contents (subsidiary contentplayback control files), deletion processing to this end and updating ofthe database corresponding to the deletion results is performed in thesame way.

The saving location setting processing unit 26 executes processingrelating to setting of the saving location of the subsidiary contents tobe stored in the subsidiary content database 22 a, beginning withdetermining of a saving location (URL) regarding the newly-uploadedsubsidiary contents.

The encryption processing unit 27 is a member which executes processingfor subjecting the subsidiary content data to be transmitted from thesubsidiary content server 2 to a user terminal device 4 to predeterminedencryption. Also, depending on the system operation, subsidiary contentdata may be encrypted and transmitted from user terminal devices 4 atthe time of uploading subsidiary contents, and in this case, theencryption processing unit 27 is arranged to execute processing fordecrypting the encryption thereof as well.

The network interface 29 is a member for performing communication viathe network NW. Reception of uploaded subsidiary contents and downloadrequests for example, and transmission of subsidiary content datacorresponding to download requests (subsidiary content playback controlfiles) are realized by the network interface 29 executing communicationprocessing in accordance with the control of the control unit 21.

FIG. 8 illustrates an internal configuration example of thecommunication server 3. As shown in the drawing, the communicationserver 3 includes a control unit 31, an a storage unit 32,authentication processing unit 33, a blog running processing unit 34, anSNS running processing unit 35, and a network interface 36. Note thatthe communication server 3 in this case provides communication serviceswith blogs and SNSs.

The control unit 31 is a member which centrally executes various typesof control processing in the communication server 3.

The storage unit 32 is configured having an HDD or the like for example,and stores a blog database 32 a and SNS database 32 b. For example, theblog database 32 a is information increments wherein data of a blogwhich the user has started have been databased. The SNS database 32 b isinformation increments wherein page contents and the like of each SNSuser have been databased.

The authentication processing unit 33 in this case executesauthentication processing in response to logins for updating blogs,requests for SNS logins, and so forth, using the user ID and passwordand the like included in the requests. In the event that theauthentication processing results are OK, the above login is successful.

The blog running processing unit 34 executes various types ofpredetermined processing for properly running a blog. For example,processing is executed such as transmission of blog screen data,transmission of blog posting screens, and so forth, in response to blogaccess requests from user terminal devices 4, valid blog posting screenrequests, and so forth. Also, processing for managing the blog database32 a, such as updating the blog database 32 a such that posts to theblog are reflected, is also executed.

In the same way, the SNS running processing unit 35 executes processingfor properly running an SNS, such as processing for transmission of dataof a page in response to SNS page access requests and databasemanagement beginning with updating the SNS database 32 b such that postssuch as diaries are reflected, and so forth.

The network interface 36 is a member for performing communication viathe network NW. This enables transmission of page data in response toaccess requests for blogs and SNSs, and so forth.

Note that while the communication server 3 is provided corresponding toSNSs and blogs, but separate servers may be configured for SNSs andblogs, for example. Also, a configuration may be made to provide morebasic CGM related services, such personal sites and homepages, forexample.

FIG. 9 illustrates an internal configuration example of the userterminal device 4. Note that in this case, the hardware serving as theuser terminal device 4 is a personal computer.

First, the user terminal device 4 has a network interface 44 in order toperform communication via the network NW. Due to this network interface44 having been provided, the user terminal device 4 can communicationwith, for example, the original audio content server 1, the subsidiarycontent server 2, the communication server 3, and other user terminaldevices 4 and so forth, via the network NW.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 41 is capable of executing various typesof processing following an OS (Operating System) and various types ofapplications programs installed in an HDD (hard disk drive) 48 forexample, and programs held in ROM 42. With the present embodiment, anapplication program serving as the music editing/sharing application 100is to be installed.

RAM 43 is a work area for the CPU 41, and suitably holds data andprograms and the like for the CPU 41 to execute various types ofprocessing.

An input/output interface 45 in this case has an input device 46 whichis a keyboard or mouse or the like for example connected thereto, withoperation signals being output from the input device 46 being convertedinto signals suitable for the CPU 41 and output to the CPU 41.

Also, the input/output interface 45 has a media drive 47 connectedthereto. This media drive 47 is a drive device configured such that datacan be recorded to and played from removable media of a predeterminedformat.

Also, the input/output interface 45 has connected thereto an HDD 48having a hard disk as a storage medium. The CPU 41 is arranged so as tobe able to record or read out data and programs and the like to and fromthe hard disk of the hard disk drive 48, via the input/output interface45.

Also, a display monitor 49 for displaying images is also connected tothe input/output interface 45.

A data interface 44A is a member for executing data communication withan external device via a predetermined data interface. Examples ofinterface standards which the data interface 44A actually handlesinclude USB (Universal Serial Bus), IEEE (the Institute of Electricaland Electronic Engineers) 1394, and for wireless standards, includeBluetooth, IrDA (Infrared Data Association), and so forth.

FIG. 10 illustrates a data content example stored in the HDD 48 withrelation to usage of the music editing/sharing system according to thepresent embodiment.

As shown in this drawing, with relation to the music editing/sharingsystem according to the present embodiment, first, the musicediting/sharing application 100 is stored as data of an applicationprogram. Note that storing of the music editing/sharing application 100as to the HDD 48 is performed by installation processing. Also, asapplication files, a primary content file group 103 configured of one ormore primary content files, and a subsidiary content playback controlfile group 104 configured of one or more subsidiary content playbackcontrol files, are stored under the control of the music editing/sharingapplication 100. The primary content files making up the primary contentfile group 103 are files which are original audio content data stored inthe HDD 48 provided with a later-described common primary content ID, soas to be capable of being handled as primary contents.

The music editing/sharing application 100 in this case can be viewedfunctionally as being generally configured of a program portion servingas a content managing/editing tool 101 and a program portion serving asa communication tool 102). The content managing/editing tool 101 isarranged to execute downloading of primary content files (configured ofaudio data and metadata) and subsidiary content playback control files,and file operations with regard to primary content files of the primarycontent file group 103 and subsidiary content playback control files ofthe subsidiary content playback control file group 104. Also executedare editing processing in accordance with editing operations, subsidiarycontent playback control file creating processing in response to editingresults, and so forth. The communication tool 102 executes processingfor accessing the communication server 3 and operating blogs and SNSs.

FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of the program configuration withregard to the content managing/editing tool 101 in increments offunction blocks, and can be viewed of being made up of a communicationcontrol unit 111, a primary content acquisition processing unit 112, aprimary content saving managing processing unit 113, a subsidiarycontent acquisition processing unit 114, a subsidiary content savingmanaging processing unit 115, a subsidiary content transfer processingunit 116, a subsidiary content creating processing unit 117, asubsidiary content playback control file generating/interpretingprocessing unit 118, an encryption/decryption processing unit 119, anaudio playback signal processing unit 120, a primary content IDgenerating/managing processing unit 121, and a subsidiary content IDgenerating/managing processing unit 122, as shown in the drawing.

The communication control unit 111 is a member made up primarily ofprograms for executing communication between the original audio contentserver 1 and subsidiary content server 2 with relation to contentmanagement/editing via the network.

The primary content acquisition processing unit 112 is a member made upof programs for downloading and acquiring primary contents (originalaudio contents). The primary content acquisition processing unit 112provides a user interface for downloading primary contents. Also,control for issuing commands as download requests and causingtransmission by the communication control unit 111, processing forreceiving handover of packets of the primary content data received atthe communication control unit 111 and restoring to the data format asprimary contents and so forth, are also executed by this primary contentacquisition processing unit 112.

The primary content saving managing processing unit 113 is a member forexecuting processing for saving the primary content files acquired bythe primary content acquisition processing unit 112 in the HDD 48, andprocessing for managing the saved primary content files. For example,the primary content saving managing processing unit 113 realizes tunemanagement such as sorting in accordance with artist name, album units,genre, and so forth.

The subsidiary content acquisition processing unit 114 is a member madeup of programs for downloading and acquiring subsidiary contents.

The subsidiary content saving managing processing unit 115 is a memberfor executing processing for saving subsidiary content playback controlfiles acquired by the subsidiary content acquisition processing unit 114in the HDD 48, and processing for managing the saved subsidiary contentplayback control files.

The subsidiary content transfer processing unit 116 executes processingsuch that transfer processing for uploading subsidiary content playbackcontrol files to the subsidiary content server 2 via the communicationcontrol unit 111 is executed properly.

The subsidiary content creating processing unit 117 is a member forexecuting processing relating to editing using the editing materialcontents shown in FIG. 3, i.e., creating of tune contents serving assubsidiary contents. For example, a user interface for editingoperations and so forth is also realized by this subsidiary contentcreating processing unit 117.

The subsidiary content playback control file generating/interpretingprocessing unit 118 first executes processing for generating subsidiarycontent playback control files in which the tune contents serving assubsidiary contents created by the subsidiary content creatingprocessing unit 117 are reflected. Also, in the event of playingsubsidiary contents, interpretation processing is executed regarding thesubsidiary content playback control file shown in FIG. 4, and a playbackprocessing sequence using the editing material contents is determined.

With the present embodiment, primary content files are encrypted andtransmitted from the original audio content server 1. Also, encryptionis implemented at the time of transmitting subsidiary content playbackcontrol files from the subsidiary content server 2 to a user terminaldevice 4 (downloading). Also, there are cases of sending out withencryption in the case of uploading subsidiary content data from a userterminal device 4 to the subsidiary content server 2. Theencryption/decryption processing unit 119 executes processing fordecrypting encryption in the event that a primary content file or asubsidiary content playback control file that has been encrypted is usedfor operations for playing, editing, or the like. Also, processing forexecuting encryption is executed to perform encryption on the subsidiarycontent playback control file and transmit, if this is the case.

The audio playback signal processing unit 120 is a member for executing,in the signal processing process for playing digital audio data asaudio, predetermined signal processing which should be carried out atthe digital signal format stage. For example, regarding playing of aprimary content file, in the event that this primary content file hasbeen subjected to compression encoding, decoding processingcorresponding to this compression encoding is performed, so as to obtaina digital audio signals with a predetermined PCM format, for example.Also, in the event of playing subsidiary contents, this executes playingprocessing serving as a sequencer, wherein the data portions of theprimary content files serving as editing material contents are playedfollowing the sequence of playing processing determined by theaforementioned subsidiary content playback control filegenerating/interpreting processing unit 118.

Now, at the time of playing subsidiary contents, the results ofinterpretation of the playback control information by the subsidiarycontent playback control file generating/interpreting processing unit118 can be reflected in an editing work screen which is a GUI providedby the subsidiary content creating processing unit 117. That is to say,the contents of playback instructions indicated by the playback controlinformation can be displayed in a form which the user can recognized, onthe editing work screen. The user can confirm in detail how thatsubsidiary contents was created, by viewing this. This means that howthe creator created the subsidiary content can be obtained as accurateinformation. For example, in the case of contents in digital audiosignals, in order for a general user to tell how the content has beencreated, only estimation can be made from the acoustic content which canbe actually played and listened to. In comparison with this, in the caseof the present embodiment, how the subsidiary content has been createdcan be comprehended in further detail and more specifically. Sharingsuch subsidiary content among users can be expected to markedly improvethe knowledge and skill of users using the music editing/sharing systemaccording to the present embodiment with regard to music production. Thesystem according to the present embodiment has extremely highentertainment nature and usage value for users with interest in musicproduction.

Also, the shared primary content ID generating/managing processing unit121 executes predetermined processing relating to later-described sharedprimary content IDs, such as generating shared primary content IDs,assigning generated shared primary content IDs, and so forth.

The subsidiary content ID generating/managing processing unit 122executes processing for generating a later-described subsidiary contentID, and predetermined processing relating to the generated subsidiarycontent ID.

Next, a structure example of a subsidiary content playback control filewill be described with reference to FIG. 12.

As shown in the drawing, a subsidiary content playback control file isgenerally made up of a file main portion and metadata portion. Also, thefile main portion is made up of a header block, content block, andattribute information block.

First, in the file main portion, the header block is the header portionof the current subsidiary content playback control file, and accordinglyprimarily stores predetermined information having comprehensivelysignificant content relating to the current file. Here, the currentsubsidiary content ID, application information, content type status, andso forth are shown as information stored in the header block. Thecurrent subsidiary content ID is a subsidiary content ID to becorrelated to the current subsidiary content playback control file (tobe provided) as an identifier for identifying the subsidiary contentplayback control file (subsidiary content ID).

Also, in the header block, application information is made up ofpredetermined information relating to the application which has createdthe current subsidiary content playback control file, for example. Forexample, this is made up of information such as the name, version, andso forth, of the application.

The content type indicating which of pre-classified types the subsidiarycontent serving as the current subsidiary content playback control filefalls under.

The status is information indicating which state of predefined statesthe current subsidiary content playback control file is in.

At least playback control information is stored in the content block.This playback control information (content block) is true main entityinformation as the subsidiary content playback control file (mainportion information). Information included in the regions other than thecontent block excluding the header block (attribute information block,metadata portion) is added information to the above main portioninformation.

The playback control information is information made up describing aprocessing sequence for playing tune contents serving as currentsubsidiary content, in a predetermined language. Elements of thedescription contents forming this playback control information include,for example, first, a description indicating primary content serving asactual audio data used for playback, description indicating a dataportion to be used for actual playing subsidiary content from the audiodata serving as this primary content, and description indicating thetime for playing this data portion. Also, description for applyingeffects or special effects, such as fade-in, fade-out, overlap,equalizing (tone adjustment), playback speed rate, reverberation, delay,and so forth, for example, is performed.

Also, the attribute information block includes at least usage primarycontents information, usage editing material content information, andpresent content usage agreement range information.

The usage primary contents information is information indicating whichprimary contents are used for playing the tune contents serving as thesubsidiary content which is the current subsidiary content playbackcontrol file (these are the usage primary contents). In other words,this is information indicating which primary contents have beenconsequently used for creating the current subsidiary content.

In correlation with FIGS. 5A though 5C, the information indicating theprimary contents shown as forming the subsidiary content newly createdby editing processing is the above-described usage primary contentsinformation. That is to say, in the case of FIG. 5A, the primarycontents A and B are shown in the usage primary contents information, inthe case of FIG. 5B, the primary contents A, B, and C are shown, and inthe case of FIG. 5C, the primary contents C, D, E, and F are shown.

Note that the primary content ID is used for indicating the usageprimary contents in the usage primary contents information. The primarycontent ID is generated based on the audio feature amount, as describedlater.

Also, as described earlier, as for the tune contents serving as thesubsidiary content created editing the editing material content, theremay be a possibility that a certain primary content included in theediting material content will be deleted. With the example of the casein FIG. 5B, with the new subsidiary content obtained by performingediting using the editing material contents A and B for example, theremay be a possibility that the tune contents will be that which uses theprimary contents A and C as sound sources, but not using the element ofthe primary content D. In this case, only the primary content A and Care audio data of primary contents used for playing the subsidiarycontent, and the primary content D is unused.

With regard to how the contents of the usage primary content informationshould be corresponding to such a case, there can be conceived onearrangement wherein the contents are such that only the primary contentsA and C are shown and the primary content D is not presented, based onthe idea that only primary contents actually used for playing thesubsidiary content should be reflected.

As for another, there can be conceived another arrangement wherein thecontents are such that all of the primary contents A, C, and D areshown. That is to say, this is based on an idea wherein, in this case,while the primary content D is not actually used, there has been theinfluence of the tune contents serving as the primary content D to acertain extent in the process of creating the subsidiary content, andaccordingly is equivalent to being used in an underlying manner. In thiscase, all primary contents which have been used even once up to thegeneration of the subsidiary content created this time are consequentlyincluded in the usage primary content information.

The usage editing material content information is information indicatingwhich editing material contents (usage editing material contents) havebeen directly used for creating the subsidiary content to which thecurrent subsidiary content playback control file corresponds. With theexample in FIGS. 5A through 5C, shown in the usage editing materialcontent information of the subsidiary content following the editingprocessing shown in FIG. 5A is information indicating the actual primarycontent files serving as the editing material contents A and B. Also,stored in the usage editing material content information of thesubsidiary content following the editing processing shown in FIG. 5B isinformation indicating the primary content file serving as the editingmaterial content A, and the subsidiary content serving as the editingmaterial content C (subsidiary content playback control file).

Note that the usage editing material content information also hasattached information of related predetermined contents for each of theediting material contents shown here.

The present content usage agreement range information is information ofa usage agreement range set regarding the current subsidiary content.The structure and definition contents there should comply with the usageagreement range information of the configuration example of usagecontents described next with FIGS. 13 and 14.

In FIG. 12, the metadata portion stores at least content relatedinformation. The content related information is configured furtherstoring metadata related to the subsidiary content to which the currentsubsidiary content playback control file corresponds, such as artistcomments, genre, category, play time, date-and-time of registration, andso forth, as shown in the drawing, for example.

FIG. 13 illustrates a structure example of usage primary contentsinformation. As shown in this drawing, the usage primary contentsinformation is generally made up by linked unit file information. Eachunit file information corresponds with a single usage primary content.

Information items of shared primary content ID, artist name, tune name,and usage agreement range information are provided with the unit fileinformation, for example.

The shared primary content ID (versatile identification information) isan identifier assigned to each primary content corresponding to one tunefor example, and uniquely indicates which usage primary contentcorresponds to that unit file information, by the shared primary contentID within the unit file information.

This shared primary content ID is generated by the shared primarycontent ID generating/managing processing unit 121. In order to generatethe value of this shared primary content ID, predetermined computationand processing applying audio feature amount analysis processing isperformed, using the digital audio signals stored in the file serving asthe original audio content stored in the HDD 48. The shared primarycontent ID obtained in this way is uniquely set in correspondence withthe contents of the audio obtained by generating the audio contents. Inother words, a shared primary content ID is shared as long as thecontents of the audio obtained by playback are the same, regardless ofdifferences in format (digital audio signal format, file format), and soforth, having versatility among content data having the same contentsbut different audio sources or formats.

The artist name information item indicates the name of the performer orcreator who has played or created the corresponding usage content.

The tune name information item indicates the tune name of thecorresponding usage content.

The information of the usage agreement range (usage agreement rangeinformation) is formed of a group of one or more usage items 1 throughn.

The usage items 1 through n are assigned such that predetermined usagecontents related to editing correspond to each. Examples of usagecontents to be appropriated to usage items which can be conceivedinclude the following.

-   -   Contents relating to whether or not secondary usage of the        present content is permitted    -   Contents relating to using contents of another artist from the        present contents, with regard to other contents to be used as        editing material    -   Contents relating to using contents of another album from that        to which present contents belong, with regard to other contents        to be used as editing material    -   Contents relating to using particular effects and special        effects    -   Contents relating to using particular plug-in modules    -   Extracting a part from the entire tune and using as editing        material    -   Permission contents relating to extracted audio data portion in        the event of extracting a part from the entire tune and using as        editing material    -   Number of usable generations (for example, in the event of        permitting use for two generations, i.e., up to the grandchild        generation, as primary content, child subsidiary content using        this primary content and grandchild subsidiary content using the        subsidiary content can be created, but the grandchild subsidiary        content is uneditable with regard to the portion using the        corresponding usage contents)    -   Contents relating to number and type of contents regarding which        secondary use can be performed in combination with the present        content

Information indicating contents relating to usage authorization set foreach usage item, beginning with permitted/not-permitted for example, isdescribed for each of the these usage items. As for the information ofthe usage agreement range, generalizing the usage setting contentsdescribed for each of these usage items indicates the usage agreementrange for the corresponding usage primary content.

FIG. 14 illustrates a structure example of usage editing materialcontents information.

As shown in the drawing, the structure of the usage editing materialcontents information in this case confirms to the structure of the usageprimary content information shown in FIG. 13. However, in the case ofusage editing material contents, there are cases of being primarycontents, and cases of being subsidiary content. Accordingly, in theevent that the corresponding content is a primary content, the sharedprimary content ID of the primary content is stored in the ID region forthe increment file information, and if a subsidiary content, asubsidiary content ID which is the ID of the subsidiary content isstored.

Note that distinction of shared primary content ID and subsidiary ID canbe determined based on a format defined regarding each ID, for example.As one example, an arrangement may be conceived wherein ID typeidentification information (or information equivalent thereto)indicating whether the ID is a shared primary content ID or subsidiarycontent ID is stored in a predetermined position in the data stringmaking up each of the shared primary content ID and subsidiary contentID, so as to be determinable by this ID type identification information.Or, in the event that the size of the shared primary content ID andsubsidiary content ID differ, determination may be made based on thedifference in size thereof.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of contents of playback controlinformation in a subsidiary content playback control file.

In this drawing, the description portion between the brackets [ ]indicates the playback control content of sections temporallyconsecutive, using one primary usage content (section playback controlcontent).

An example of playback control content of a usage primary content unitshown in FIG. 15 will be described.

First, as for the section playback control content shown at the head inthe drawing, [file_id=AAAAAA; time=00:00-00:10; position=vv-zz] isdescribed. This specifies that the usage primary content is specified bythe shared primary content ID=AAAAAA, and that the play time of thecurrent subsidiary content using this usage primary content is 00:00(start time)-00:10 (play time 10 seconds), and that the data section ofthe usage primary content used during this play time is a rangecorresponding to address vv through address zz.

For the subsequent section playback control content, [file_id=AAAAAA;time=00:10-00:15; position=ss-tt] is described. This specifies that theusage primary content is specified by the shared primary contentID=AAAAAA, and that the play time of the current subsidiary contentusing this usage primary content is 00:10-00:15, and that the datasection of the usage primary content used during this play time is arange corresponding to address ss through address tt.

For the subsequent section playback control content, [file_id=BBBBBB;time=00:15-00:20; position=pp-uu] is described. This specifies that theusage primary content is specified by the shared primary contentID=BBBBBB, and that the play time of the current subsidiary contentusing this usage primary content is 00:15-00:20, and that the datasection of the usage primary content used during this play time is arange corresponding to address pp through address uu.

For example, the audio playback signal processing unit 120 of the musicediting/sharing application 100 according to the present embodiment thussequentially interprets the playback control contents of the usagecontent units in the brackets [ ], and executes actual playback controlin accordance with the interpretation results, thereby playing andoutputting the subsidiary content as audio signals.

Also, the structure of a primary content file will be described. Thoughdescribed earlier, a primary content file has a file structure made upof audio data of a predetermined format having tune (audio) contentsserving as primary content, and various types of metadata relatedthereto, as shown again in FIG. 16. The data content of the primarycontent file is the content of the original audio data, obtained byacquisition of data by downloading or from an external device forexample, to the HDD 48, which has been passed on. Accordingly, theprimary content file also includes an original content ID, which is anidentifier corresponding to the original audio content. Thereupon, theaudio data file handled as the primary content has the above-describedshared primary content ID, added or correlated thereto, as shown in thedrawing.

Note that as for audio data formats, there are already various formatsavailable. For example, the PCM format which uses predetermined samplingfrequency and quantization bits, audio compression encoding methods,formats compression-encoded by bit rate, and further, a format of 1-bitsignals subjected to PDM (pulse-density modulation) obtained by ΔΣmodulation, as typified in DSD (Direct Stream Digital) or the like, forexample. As described later, for the shared primary content ID definedin the present embodiment, even if these formats differ at the audiodata portion, the same primary content ID is assigned in common if acontent file of the same audio content, as can be understood fromdescription given earlier.

Also, as for the types of the above-described metadata, in addition toinformation generally attached to audio data, such as tune title,artist, album, genre, data format, data size, and so forth, the usageagreement range information described with FIG. 13 for example, may alsobe included.

While acceptance of subsidiary usage of the primary content is assumedwith the present embodiment, this acceptance of usage is obtained byagreement with the copyright holder of the primary content (e.g., artistor the like). This means that the content and range of usage and soforth which the copyright holder can agree on naturally changesdepending on the way the copyright holder thinks about the tune.Accordingly, with the present embodiment, usage agreement rangeinformation which is information setting the usage agreement range isbuilt in as metadata for the primary content as well, in order torespect the way such copyright holders think, thereby reflecting theintent of the copyright holder. Of course, as a system of operation, theusage agreement range information could be set uniformly for all primarycontents, but an arrangement as with the present embodiment whereindifferent usage agreement ranges can be set for each primary content soas to reflect the intent of the copyright holder is more effective insmoothly operating the music editing/sharing system.

Note that the contents of usage items making up the usage agreementrange information in the metadata of the primary content file do nothave to agree with the subsidiary content playback control file shown inFIGS. 13 and 14, and that it is sufficient for the content of the usageitems used as a primary content to be set.

Next, an example of procedures relating to the primary processingrelating to editing of subsidiary contents will be described withreference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 17 and 18. Note that the processingshown in FIGS. 17 and 18 is realized by the CPU 41 executing a programserving as the content managing/editing tool 101 in the musicediting/sharing application 100, for example.

Now, let us say that for example, a user of a user terminal device 4 hasactivated the content managing/editing tool 101 of the musicediting/sharing application 100 and is ready to edit subsidiary content.Let us say that operations are performed such that content to use asmaterial for creating subsidiary content is searched, and this isregistered (finalized) as editing material content. In accordance withthis, the processing shown in FIG. 17 is executed by the subsidiarycontent creating processing unit 117 of the content managing/editingtool 101.

In FIG. 17, first, in step S101, taking in of data of content registeredas editing material content is executed. Note that in the event that theregistered editing material content is a primary content, the data ofthe file which is the primary content is taken in, and in the event of asubsidiary content, the data of a subsidiary content playback controlfile corresponding thereto is taken in.

In step S102, reading in of information of the usage agreement range isfurther executed from the data taken in by the above step S101. Thus,various contents relating to the usage agreement set with regard to thecontent registered this time as editing material content is recognizedbased on the content of the usage items 1 through n in the usageagreement range information. Accordingly, in the following step S103,the contents of the usage agreement recognized in correspondence withthe above step S102 is set so as to be reflected on a user interface(UI) for subsidiary content editing. Due to this processing, thesubsidiary content creating processing unit 117 provides an environmentwherein editing operations of contents exceeding the usage agreementrange set in the editing material content beforehand are not performed.

FIG. 18 illustrates a basic processing procedure example relating togenerating of a subsidiary content playback control file which is theactual data serving as the subsidiary content. The processing shown inthis drawing is also realized by the CPU 41 executing a program servingas the content managing/editing tool 101, for example.

Here, first in step S201, appropriate editing processing in accordancewith operation input for editing is executed. For example, thesubsidiary content creating processing unit 117 provides a GUI(Graphical User Interface) for the user to perform editing operationsfor creating subsidiary content, with the program thereof. The userperforms editing operations for creating subsidiary content using thisGUI, and the processing in step S201 is executed in accordance with thisoperation.

In the process of performing editing processing as described above, upondetermination being made in step S202 that operations have beenperformed for saving the editing results so far, the flow proceeds tostep S203. In step S203, a content block is generated including playbackcontrol information corresponding to the tune content serving as thesubsidiary content obtained by the editing results so far, andthereupon, a header block, and attribute information block which arealso members in the file main unit portion, and a metadata portion, arealso created, and finally a subsidiary content playback control file isgenerated. Control is then executed in the next step S204 so as to savethis subsidiary content playback control file in an appropriatedirectory in the HDD 48 for example. Upon the procedure of step S204having ended, the flow returns to step S201.

Note that while not shown in the drawing here, the processing shown inthis drawing is left and the flow transits to other required processing,in response to operations being performed to close the GUI screen forcreating subsidiary content for example, or the like.

Also, with regard to creating a subsidiary content playback controlfile, the contents of present content usage agreement range informationwill be created. As for how to set the contents of the present contentusage agreement range information, an arrangement may be conceived toautomatically set (contents for each usage item) following predeterminedrules, in a range not exceeding a minimum determined summarizing theusage agreement range information for each primary content which is thesource editing material, for example. Also, an arrangement may beconceived for settings are made corresponding to specificationoperations relating to the contents of the present content usageagreement range information which the user has performed, so that theintent of the user is reflected. However, even in the event of settingin accordance with user operations in this way, setting is performed ina range not exceeding a minimum determined summarizing the usageagreement range information for each primary content which is the sourceediting material, so that setting of usage agreement range (contents foreach usage item) exceeding this is not performed.

Next, a basic processing procedure example relating to uploading ofsubsidiary content by the user terminal device 4, and a processingprocedure example of the subsidiary content server 2 in accordance withthis uploading, will be described with reference to the flowchart inFIG. 19. The processing at the user terminal device 4 side in thedrawing is realized primarily by programs serving as the subsidiarycontent saving managing processing unit 115 and subsidiary contenttransfer processing unit 116. The processing at the subsidiary contentserver 2 is executed by the members shown in FIG. 7 operating incooperation, but in reality, can be viewed as being realized by thecomputer system (CPU) making up the subsidiary content server 2executing programs.

The user terminal device 4 side in step S301 is awaiting obtaining of acommand instructing uploading of a subsidiary content playback controlfile. Now, let us say that the user selects, as an operation as to theGUI provided by the content managing/editing tool 101, one or moresubsidiary contents regarding which uploading is desired, from thesubsidiary contents created by the music editing/sharing application 100and stored in the HDD 48 as application files of the musicediting/sharing application 100 (i.e., subsidiary content playbackcontrol files), and performs an upload execution operation. In responseto this, a command is generated which instructs uploading of thesubsidiary content playback control file corresponding to the subsidiarycontent selected at the GUI, and the flow proceeds to step S302.

In step S302, the subsidiary content regarding which uploading has beenspecified, i.e., the subsidiary content playback control file, is readin from a predetermined directory. In the following step S303, controlis executed such that the subsidiary content playback control file whichhas been read in is transmitted and output to the subsidiary contentserver 2 via network along with an upload request.

The subsidiary content server 2 is standing by in step S401 forreception of an upload request, and upon the upload request beingreceived, the procedures from S402 and on are executed. Note that inorder to actually transition to step S402 after receiving an uploadrequest, confirmation is made that this is a request from a valid user,by way of authentication processing for example, but such processingprocedures are omitted here.

In step S402, a saving location (URL) for the subsidiary contentplayback control file received along with the upload request is set. Thefunctions of the saving location setting processing unit 26 at thesubsidiary content server 2 for example, are used for this URL setting.

In step S403, communication processing for notifying the saving locationof the uploaded subsidiary content (subsidiary content playback controlfile) is performed as to the user terminal device 4 which is theoriginator of the upload request this time.

At the user terminal device 4 side which has performed in upload requestin step S303 is awaiting reception of information of the saving locationin step S304. Upon receiving information of the saving location, in stepS305 information of the received saving location (URL) is saved in anappropriate directory. Thus, hereafter, the information of the savinglocation of the subsidiary content can be called up by performing apredetermined operation as to the content managing/editing tool 101. Inthe event that the saving location is a URL, a text string as the URLcan be output by display or the like, for example depending on the calloperation.

The flowchart in FIG. 20 illustrates a processing procedure examplerelating to downloading of the subsidiary content by the user terminaldevice 4, and a processing procedure example at the subsidiary contentserver 2 corresponding thereto. The processing at the user terminaldevice 4 in the drawing as well is primarily realized by programsserving as the subsidiary content saving managing processing unit 115and subsidiary content transfer processing unit 116.

First, in step S501, the user terminal device 4 side is awaitingobtaining of a command instructing downloading of a subsidiary contentplayback control file. Here, let us say that for example, the useraccesses the subsidiary content server 2, as an operation as to the GUIprovided by the content managing/editing tool 101, and in a state ofbrowsing a list of subsidiary contents saved and managed therein,selects one or more subsidiary contents regarding which downloading isdesired, and performs operations for executing downloading. In responseto this, a positive determination result will be obtained in step S501,and the flow proceeds to step S502.

In step S502, a download request is transmitted to the subsidiarycontent server 2 in response to a download instructing having beenobtained. Note that as for this download request, information forspecifying the directory (saving location) of the subsidiary contentselected at the time of operation of the download execution instructionfor example, is also included. Note that an arrangement may be conceivedwherein instead of the saving location, a download request is madespecifying the subsidiary content ID provided to the subsidiary contentplayback control file which is the actual entity of the subsidiarycontent and so forth, for example.

The subsidiary content server 2 is awaiting for a download request to bereceived in step S601, and upon an download request being received,executes the procedures in step S602. Note that in order to actuallytransition to step S602 after receiving a download request as well,authentication processing and the like transpires, but such processingprocedures are omitted here as well.

In step S602, the subsidiary content database 22 a of the storage unit22 is accessed and the specified subsidiary content (subsidiary contentplayback control file) is searched for, and the searched subsidiarycontent playback control file is encrypted in step S603 and transmittedto the requesting user terminal device 4 in step S604.

The user terminal device 4 which has transmitted the download request instep S502 awaits in step S503 for the subsidiary content playbackcontrol file according to he download request to be received. Upondetermining that the subsidiary content playback control file has beenreceived, in step S504, the received subsidiary content playback controlfile is saved and managed in an appropriate directory.

The flowchart in FIG. 21 illustrates a processing procedure example ofthe user terminal device 4 to play the subsidiary content obtained bydownloading (saved in HDD 48), and the processing of the user terminaldevice 4 in this drawing is realized by programs primarily serving asthe subsidiary content saving managing processing unit 115,encryption/decryption processing unit 119, and audio playback signalprocessing unit 120.

First, in step S701, obtaining of a playback start instruction regardingthe subsidiary content saved in the HDD 48 by downloading is awaited.Now, let us say that for example, as an operation as to the GUI realizedby the subsidiary content saving managing processing unit 115, onesubsidiary content is selected from the subsidiary contents saved in theHDD 48, and an instruction is given to start playing, the flow proceedsfrom step S701 to step S702.

In step S702, the subsidiary content playback control file correspondingto the specified subsidiary content is read in from the HDD 48.

Here, the subsidiary content data obtained by downloading is saved inthe HDD 48 with the encryption at the time of transmission left.Accordingly, in the next step S703, processing for decrypting the readin subsidiary content data is executed.

In step S704, determination is made regarding whether or not theencryption decrypting processing in the above step S703 has beensuccessful.

For example, in the event that the subsidiary content data regardingwhich starting of playing has been specified this time in step S701 hasbeen legitimately downloaded from the content server 2, the decryptingprocessing in step S703 will be successful and proper subsidiary contentdata will be restored.

Conversely, in the event that the subsidiary content data has beenobtained by some way other than downloading from the subsidiary contentserver 2 for example, either encryption has been performed with anothermethod or algorithm, or no encryption has been performed. In this case,depending on the decrypting processing in step S703, either propersubsidiary content data is not restorable, or decrypting processing isinapplicable. That is to say, as for the results of the decryptingprocessing in step S703, this can be viewed as failing, including casesthat decrypting processing is inapplicable.

In the event that positive determination results have been obtained thatthe decrypting processing has been successful in step S704, the flowproceeds to step S705, and playback control processing regarding thesubsidiary content is started. Conversely, in the event that a negativedecryption result has been obtained in step S704 that the decryptingprocessing has failed, the flow proceeds to step S706, and errorhandling processing is executed. As for this error handling processing,first, playback control processing regarding the subsidiary contentregarding which playback has been specified this time is kept from beingstarted, and thereupon for example, control processing for notifying ona GUI that the subsidiary content regarding which playback has beenspecified this time is unauthorized and unplayable, and so forth, isexecuted.

By such processing being executed for example, with the presentembodiment, only subsidiary content information externally obtainedwhich has been legitimately downloaded and obtained from the subsidiarycontent server 2 is played at the user terminal device 4, whereby thecopyright of the primary content or subsidiary content is fullyprotected.

Note that as for an arrangement for playing and outputting onlysubsidiary content legitimately downloaded from the subsidiary contentserver 2, other arrangements can be conceived. For example, aconfiguration may be conceived wherein encryption is decryptedbeforehand at the point of the user terminal device 4 receiving andobtaining as a download, and is stored in the HDD 48 with the decryptionresult information attached thereto, and at the time of playing, theattached information of the decryption results is referred to, so as tomake determination regarding whether or not to play the subsidiarycontent. Also, an arrangement may be made wherein a special codeindicating that transmission has been made for downloading is embeddedin the subsidiary content as processing at the subsidiary content server2 side at the time of transmission from the subsidiary content server 2,and at the time of playing, presence/absence of this code, and thecontent thereof and so forth is confirmed at the user terminal device 4side, so as to determine whether or not to start playing.

A configuration described below, based on the basic configurationdescribed so far, is made with the present embodiment, which makesmanagement of primary contents more efficient.

FIG. 22 schematically illustrates an example of a form of contentmanagement by ID with a system according to the present embodiment.Description will be made following the order of procedures andoperations indicated by the numerals in the brackets in the drawing, inthe same way as with FIG. 2 described earlier. FIGS. 23 and 24 will alsobe reference as appropriate in description of FIG. 22.

First, FIG. 22 shows a primary content ID management server 5, which isnew to this description. The primary content ID management server 5 issituated on the network NW along with the original audio content server1, subsidiary content server 2, and communication server 3, describedwith FIGS. 1 and 2, for example. The primary content ID managementserver 5 manages IDs relating to primary contents (primary content ID),as described later.

Procedure 1

Here, subsidiary content (subsidiary content playback control file) isuploaded from the user terminal device 4A. Uploading of the subsidiarycontent corresponds to Procedure 3 in FIG. 2 described above, forexample, and also corresponds to Procedure 4 in the flowchart in FIG.19.

Procedure 2

Upon the uploading of subsidiary content in Procedure 1 being completed,as the next procedure, the user terminal device 4A notifies (transmits)the primary content ID management server 5 of information of theoriginal content ID and shared primary content ID, correlated to each ofthe usage primary contents in the subsidiary contents uploaded this timein Procedure 1.

Procedure 3

In response to having received notification of the IDs (original contentID, shared primary content ID) transmitted in Procedure 2, the primarycontent ID management server 5 manages the primary content IDs asfollows.

FIG. 23 schematically illustrating a structure example of a primarycontent ID database (51) which the primary content ID management server5 manages. The primary content ID management server 5 manages primarycontent IDs with the primary content ID database.

With the primary content ID database, one or more format IDs (formatidentification information) are correlated with each shared primarycontent ID, thereby forming one ID set. For example an ID setcorresponding to the shared primary content ID=A shown at the upper mosttier in FIG. 23 is the packaged media sound source ID (1)=α, thepackaged media sound source ID (2)=β, the distribution sound source ID(1)=γ, and the distribution sound source ID (2)=δ. Such an ID set isalso provided for each shared primary content ID=B, C, and so on.

As can be understood from the description so far, the shared primarycontent ID has a unique value according to the content of audio servingas a single content. On the other hand, the format ID correlated withthe shared primary content ID in the ID set is an ID which is unique foreach ID within the range of the format of the actual original audiocontent data. Format IDs belonging to the same ID set indicate theoriginal audio content data (content data by format) having the samecontents of audio as the contents indicated by the correlated sharedprimary content ID, within the range of that format.

Upon receiving the set of information of the original content ID andshared primary content ID of the usage contents transmitted in Procedure2, the primary content ID management server 5 first searches the primarycontent ID database with the received shared primary content ID as thesearch condition. In the event that the results of the search show thatthe same shared primary content ID as that received was not found in theprimary content ID database, that means that the primary content (usageprimary content) received this time has not yet been registered in theprimary content ID database. In this case, the ID set generated bycorrelating the received shared primary content ID and the originalcontent ID also received, in the primary content ID database. Thisregistration adds another row to the database structure shown in FIG. 23for example, corresponding to the newly registered ID set.

Also, in the event that the same shared primary content ID as thatreceived has been found in the primary content ID database, this meansthat the ID set of the primary content corresponding to the ID receivedthis time has already been registered in the primary content IDdatabase. As the next procedure, a search is made in the format IDsmaking up the ID set corresponding to the found shared primary contentID regarding whether or not there is a format ID matching the receivedoriginal content ID.

In the event that there has been found a format ID matching the receivedoriginal content ID, the original content ID received this time isconfirmed to have been already registered in the primary content IDdatabase as a format ID. On the other hand, in the event that no formatID is found matching the received original content ID, this means thatthe original content ID received this time has net yet been registeredin the primary content ID database as a format ID. Accordingly, in thiscase, the original content ID is newly registered as a format ID.

With regard to correlation with FIG. 23, let us say that so far, theformat IDs registered corresponding to the shared primary content IDhave been only the three of packaged media sound source ID (1)=α,packaged media sound source ID (2)=β, and distribution sound source ID(2)=δ, with the shared primary content ID of the usage primary contentreceived this time indicating “A”, and the original content ID being “γ”which corresponds to the distribution sound source ID (1). Accordingly,in this case, γ, which is the value of the ID is stored in the spacecorresponding to the distribution sound source ID (1) corresponding toshared primary content ID=A.

Thus, the set of [shared primary content ID, original content ID]information regarding the usage primary content of the uploadedsubsidiary content is transmitted from the user terminal device 4 inProcedure 2, and the primary content ID management server 5 manages theprimary content ID database based on obtaining thereof. Accordingly,there is provided an arrangement wherein registration of usage primarycontents in accordance with all subsidiary contents uploaded to thesubsidiary content server 2 is automatically carried out.

Procedure 4

Here, a certain subsidiary content is downloaded from the subsidiarycontent server 2 by the user terminal device 4B. The download here isthe same as with Procedure 9 in FIG. 2.

Procedure 5

At a certain opportunity or timing following completion of downloadingof subsidiary content in Procedure 4, the user terminal device 4Brequests an ID set of each usage primary content in the downloadedsubsidiary content. The shared primary content ID of the usage primarycontent is transmitted at the time of requesting the usage primarycontent (specification of the content as to the server device). ASdescribed earlier with reference to FIG. 13, the shared primary contentID of the usage primary content is stored in the usage primary contentinformation of the subsidiary content playback control file.

Procedure 6

In response to request for the ID set, the primary content ID managementserver 5 transmits the requested ID set of the usage primary content. Inorder to do so, the primary content ID management server 5 searches forthe shared primary content ID received along with the request for the IDset, from the primary content ID database, for example. An ID set madeup of format IDs correlated with the found shared primary content ID isthen transmitted.

Procedure 7

Upon receiving the ID set transmitted from the primary content IDmanagement server 5 as described above, the user terminal device 4Bcorrelates and manages the corresponding subsidiary content playbackcontrol file and the ID set received this time.

FIGS. 24A and 24B schematically show an example of correlatingsubsidiary content (subsidiary content playback control file) and IDsets.

First, the user terminal device 4B generates unit information as ID setinformation as shown in FIG. 24A, of ID sets 1 through n obtained byreceiving n usage primary contents shown in a corresponding subsidiarycontent playback control file. This ID set information is saved so as tobe correlated with a corresponding subsidiary content playback controlfile. Note that in order to correlate the ID set information andsubsidiary content playback control file, a subsidiary content ID foridentifying the subsidiary content playback control file to becorrelated for example, is inserted into the header portion of the IDset information, for example. Accordingly, the subsidiary contentplayback control file and the ID set information are correlated bycomparing the subsidiary content ID stored in the subsidiary contentplayback control file and the subsidiary content ID stored in the ID setinformation.

As shown in FIG. 24A, in a state wherein the ID set information iscorrelated with the subsidiary content playback control file, the userterminal device 4B can recognize the IDs of all original audio contentdata (original content ID) of different formats, for each usage primarycontent in the subsidiary content playback control file which it hasdownloaded itself.

Also, FIG. 24B schematically illustrates an example of the structure ofan ID set making up the ID set information shown in FIG. 24A. As shownin FIG. 24B, one ID set is made up of a shared primary content IDcorrelated with the corresponding usage primary content, and format IDscorrelated with the shared primary content ID. These format IDs areformat IDs in the ID set transmitted to the user terminal device 4B fromthe primary content ID management server 5 in Procedure 6 in FIG. 22.That is to say, the format IDs are IDs of original audio content data(original content ID) of predetermined sound source types and formats,having the contents of the audio of the corresponding usage primarycontent.

Also, in an ID set, the stored format IDs are given an order of priorityin accordance with predetermined rules, and as shown in FIG. 24B, anorder of priority set for each format ID is stored. How the order ofpriority is set will be described later.

Procedure 8

Now, as described regarding Procedure 11 in FIG. 2, in order to playaudio of the subsidiary content at the user terminal device 4, theactual audio data of the editing material content, i.e., all usageprimary content of the subsidiary content, has to be present locally.Procedure 8 is content searching processing for enabling all usageprimary content for playing the subsidiary content to be presentlocally, and the present embodiment is configured such that searchingprocessing of the usage primary content can be efficiently automaticallyexecuted based on management of the subsidiary content playback controlfile and ID set, shown in FIGS. 24A and 24B. The flow of procedures forthis searching procedure will be described later.

FIG. 24 illustrates an example of the internal configuration of theprimary content ID management server 5. The primary content IDmanagement server 5 shown here has a primary content ID database 51,database managing unit 52, and network interface 53. The primary contentID database 51 is structured as a database for managing primary contentIDs with the structure shown in FIG. 23 earlier, and in practice is heldin a state of being stored in an HDD or the like.

The database managing unit 52 executes various predetermined managingand processing relating to the primary content ID database, such as thenew registration of primary content IDs described as Procedure 3 in FIG.22 above.

The network interface 53 executes control and processing forcommunication over the network NW. Accordingly, communication with theuser terminal device 4 side, which is the client, is realized.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 26 illustrates an example of processingprocedures executed between the user terminal device 4 (4A) and primarycontent ID management server 5 with regard to managing of primarycontent IDs according to the present embodiment.

Note that the procedures of the user terminal device 4 shown in FIG. 26are realized by the CPU 41 executing a program serving as the contentmanaging/editing tool 101 at the music editing/sharing application 100.Also, the procedures at the primary content ID management server 5 areexecuted with primarily the database managing unit 52 and networkinterface 53 operating cooperatively. Operations of a higher orderprocessing layer of the primarily the database managing unit 52 andnetwork interface 53 are realized by a computer system which the primarycontent ID management server 5 has executing a program.

First, in step S801, the user terminal device 4 stands by for uploadingof subsidiary contents executed as Procedure 1 in FIG. 22 to becompleted, and upon completion of uploading being confirmed, theprocedures of step S802 are executed.

In step S802, communication control is executed for notification of theIDs of usage primary contents (original content ID and shared primarycontent ID) in the subsidiary content (subsidiary content playbackcontrol file) uploaded in step S801 as to the primary content IDmanagement server 5.

In step S901, the primary content ID management server 5 obtains the IDstransmitted in step S802. Due to this processing, the primary content IDmanagement server 5 obtains the IDs (original content ID and sharedprimary content ID) for all usage primary contents in the subsidiarycontent playback control file uploaded in Procedure 1 in FIG. 22.

In step S902, 1 is substituted into the variable n indicating the order(No.) of the usage primary content to be processed, and the proceduresof step S903 on is executed.

In step S903, searching processing is executed at the primary contenteddatabase 52, with the shared primary content ID correlated to the usageprimary content set as the n'th, out of the shared primary content IDsreceived in step S901 as the search condition. In step S904,determination is made regarding whether or not a matching search resulthas been obtained, i.e., whether or not a shared primary content IDwhich is the same as that correlated with the n'th usage primary contentis registered in the primary content ID database 52.

In the event that a negative determination result is obtained in stepS904, this means that the n'th usage primary content is not registeredin the primary content ID database 52. In this case, the flow advancesto step S908, a new ID set made up of the newly received shared primarycontent ID of the n'th primary content and the shared primary content IDis created, and this is newly registered in the primary content IDdatabase 52. Upon executing the processing in step S908, the flowproceeds to step S909.

On the other hand, in the event that a positive determination result isobtained in step S904, this means that the n'th usage primary content isregistered in the primary content ID database 52. However, at thispoint, it is still unknown whether the shared primary content ID of then'th usage primary content received and obtained this time has beenregistered as a format ID in the ID set. Accordingly, in step S905, asearch is made in the format IDs stored in the ID set found in step S903for one matching the shared primary content ID of the n'th usage primarycontent received and obtained this time.

In step S906, determination is made regarding whether or not a matchingresult has been obtained as the search processing results of step S905.In the event that a negative determination result is obtained, thismeans that the shared primary content ID of the n'th usage primarycontent received and obtained this time has not been registered as aformat ID in the ID set. Accordingly, in this case, in step S907 the IDset found in step S903 has the shared primary content ID of the n'thusage primary content received and obtained this time additionallyregistered as a new format ID, and the flow advances to step S909.

In the event that a positive determination result is obtained, thismeans that the shared primary content ID of the n'th usage primarycontent received and obtained this time has been registered as a formatID in the ID set. In this case, step S907 is skipped and the flowadvances to step S909.

In step S909, determination is made regarding whether or not thecurrently set variable n is the maximum value. The maximum value of thevariable n is the same as the number of usage primary contentscorrelated to the sets of IDs (shared primary content ID and sharedprimary content ID) received and obtained in step S901.

In the event that a negative determination result is obtained in stepS909, this means that there is still a usage primary content remainingthat has not been processed yet. In this case, in step S910 the variablen is incremented, and the processing returns to the procedure in stepS903.

On the other hand, in the event that a positive determination result isobtained in step S909, this means that processing has been performed onall usage primary contents, so the processing shown in FIG. 26 ends.

Next, the processing procedures executed between the user terminaldevice 4 (4B) which is a client device, and the primary content IDmanagement server 5 which is a server device, for correlating andmanaging subsidiary contents (subsidiary content playback control file)and ID set at the user terminal device (4B), shown as procedures 5through 7 in FIG. 22, will be described with reference to FIG. 27. Notethat the procedures for the user terminal device 4B shown in FIG. 27 arerealized by the CPU 41 executing a program serving as the contentmanaging/editing tool 101 at the music editing/sharing application 100.

At a predetermined opportunity or timing following downloading of thesubsidiary content (subsidiary content playback control file) accordingto Procedure 4 in FIG. 22 having been completed, in step S1001 the userterminal device (4B) requests the primary content ID management server 5for an ID set corresponding to the usage primary contents of thedownloaded subsidiary content (subsidiary content playback controlfile). Note that as described with Procedure 5 in FIG. 22, at the timeof requesting the ID set, a list of shared primary content IDscorrelated with the usage primary contents of the subsidiary content istransmitted.

As for an opportunity or timing at which the processing of step S1001should be performed, automatic execution immediately followingcompletion of downloading can be conceived, for example. Also, anarrangement may be conceived wherein the processing of step S1001 isexecuted in response to user operations as to the contentmanaging/editing tool 101.

The primary content ID management server 5 executes the procedures ofsteps S1101 and S1102 in response to reception of the request for ID settransmitted in step S1001. In step S1101, first, the ID setcorresponding to the shared primary content ID is searched in theprimary content ID database 52 for each usage primary content receivedin step S1101, and in step S1102, the information of the found ID set istransmitted to the user terminal device 4 which is the requesting party.

At the user terminal device (4B) which has received the ID settransmitted thereto in step S1102, the received ID set is correlated tothe relevant subsidiary content in step S1002. The processing here isthe same as that described with reference to FIGS. 24A and 24B.

Also, at the time of correlating the ID set to the relevant subsidiarycontent, an order of priority is set in each ID set for the format IDs(shared primary content IDs) stored therein, as shown in FIG. 24B.

An example of setting the order of priority will be described now. Ascan be understood from the flowchart in FIG. 28 to be described laterfor example, the order of priority is used for searching processing ofusage primary contents. Based on this, with the present embodiment,“fidelity” at the time of playing the audio of the subsidiary content,the “cost” for obtaining the usage primary content, and the quality ofsound at the time of playing the audio of the subsidiary content, i.e.,“playback quality”, are taken into consideration.

At the time of creating subsidiary content, there may be cases whereinthe editor is intentionally selecting a sound source of an originalaudio content serving as a usage primary content. An example of thiswould be a case wherein the user intentionally uses a sound sourceobtained by converting audio signals from an analog sound source such asa vinyl record into digital signals and acquiring the signals, as theusage primary content, to obtain desired effects. If we consider thatthere is such a possibility, giving priority to original audio contentdata of the sound source and format actually used for editing andcreating the subsidiary content is appropriate for obtaining theaforementioned “fidelity”. That is to say, setting order of prioritybased on “fidelity” involves first giving a highest order of priorityfor those which have a sound source type and format matching theoriginal audio content actually used as editing material at the time ofediting and creating the subsidiary content, and thereafter, givinghigher order of priority for those which have a sound source type andformat closer matching the original audio content actually used asediting material at the time of editing and creating the subsidiarycontent. Note that the sound source type and format matching theoriginal audio content actually used as editing material at the time ofediting and creating the subsidiary content can be identified by theshared primary content ID within the unit file information in the usageprimary content information (FIG. 13).

Note that depending on the format of the original audio content, theremay be cases wherein the user has to pay a fee to download from anoriginal audio content server 1. Obtaining original audio contents inthis way will lead to a monetary burden on the user, i.e., costs, whichis not desirable. Accordingly, with the order of priority based on“cost”, the lower the monetary burden (cost) is, the higher order ofpriority is set. In order for the order of priority to be set based oncost, the content managing/editing tool 101 has to recognize the amountof money for obtaining the original audio content of each format. Tothis end, a configuration may be conceived wherein the contentmanaging/editing tool 101 communicates with an appropriate number oforiginal audio content servers situated on the network to obtaininformation regarding the amount of money.

Also, depending on the format of the original audio content, theplayback quality obtained by playing may differ. For example, it isgenerally recognized that digital sound sources have higher playbackquality than analog sound sources. Even among digital sound sources, theplayback quality of PCM sound sources will differ according to samplingfrequency and quantization bits, and further, digital sound sources thathave been subjected to audio compression encoding have differentplayback quality depending on the format, and further depending on thecompression rate (bit rate) within the same format. It can be conceivedthat the better the playback quality of the audio data to serve as theusage primary content is, the higher the quality of audio playback ofthe subsidiary content will be, which is preferable.

Accordingly, with regard to “playback quality”, the higher the playbackquality of the audio source type and format is, the higher order ofpriority is set. AS described above, the playback quality is determinedin accordance with the audio source type and format of the originalaudio content, and the original content ID (format ID) is stipulated asbeing different for each sound source type and format, for the samecontents of the audio. Accordingly, the content managing/editing tool101 can recognize the corresponding sound source type and format by thevalue of the format ID (original content ID) stored in the received IDset, and can assign order of priority according to the playback quality.

With this in mind, with the present embodiment, of the reference itemsfor setting order of priority, which are “fidelity”, “cost”, and“playback quality”, the highest priority is given to “fidelity”. That isto say, audio playback of subsidiary contents as true as possible to theintent of the creator of the subsidiary content is given the highestpriority.

Also, for setting order of priority for each set in step S1002 as theactual processing may be performed with an algorithm described next.That is, points are assigned to each of the “fidelity”, “cost”, and“playback quality”, corresponding to the sound source type and format ofthe original audio content to which the format ID stored in the ID setcorresponds. At this time, “fidelity”, is weighed heavier than “cost”,and “playback quality”. The total number of points is then tallied, andthe order of priority determined and assigned.

Note that this algorithm is only an example. What sort of priority(weighting) to give which reference item of order of priority as orderof priority rules, and how many of what sort of reference items of orderof priority to set, may be determined taking into consideration actualoperations.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 28 illustrates an example of procedures tobe executed by the user terminal device 4B (content managing/editingtool 101) for searching processing of usage primary contents to be usedfor playing of the downloaded subsidiary content (relevant subsidiarycontent), shown as Procedure 8 in FIG. 22.

In FIG. 28, first, in step S1201 1 is substituted into the variable nindicating the No. to be assigned to one or more usage primary contentsin the relevant subsidiary content.

In step S1202, the n'th ID set (ID set n) in the ID set informationshown in FIGS. 24A and 24B is referred to. Step S1203 and on isprocessing for searching for original audio content correlated with theformat ID stored in the n'th ID set referred here.

In step S1203, 1 is substituted into a variable m indicating the orderof priority assigned to the format ID stored in the n'th ID set.

In the following step S1204, the original audio content to which theformat ID (original content ID) with the m'th order of priority has beencorrelated is first searched for on the user terminal device 4B. This isequivalent to determining whether or not original audio content data ofa sound source type and format of which the order of priority is them'th exists locally as n'th usage primary content. Step S1205 is aprocedure for performing this determination.

In step S1205, in the event that a positive determination result isobtained that original audio content data of a sound source type andformat of which the order of priority is the m'th exists locally, theflow advances to the later-described step S1210. This flow wherein theflow advances to step S1210 in accordance with a positive determinationresult having been made in step S1205 means that processing of obtainingsubsequent original audio content data serving as n'th primary contentshas been ended, because original audio content data to be used as n'thusage primary content exists locally.

On the other hand, in the event that a negative result has been obtainedin step S1205, the flow proceeds to step S1206.

In step S1206, determination is made regarding whether or not anoriginal audio content correlated to the format ID (original content ID)of which the order of priority is m'th can be downloaded form thenetwork. This determination can be made by determining whether or notthe format ID of which the order of priority is m'th is that of thedistributed sound source.

In the event that a positive determination result is obtained in stepS1206, control is effected to download data of the original audiocontent correlated with a format ID of which the order of priority ism'th via the network. This download can be performed by specifying thecontent to be downloaded by the format ID of which the order of priorityis m'th. Upon completion of this download, data of the original audiocontent correlated with the format ID of which the order of priority ism'th will exist locally. This, with the procedures shown in FIG. 28,original audio content which is downloadable from the network and shouldexist locally is automatically locally saved by downloading.

On the other hand, in the event that a negative determination result isobtained in step S1206, the flow proceeds to step S1208. A negativedetermination result being obtained in step S1206 means that theoriginal audio content correlated with the format ID of which the orderof priority is m'th is of a sound source type which should be obtainedby a method other than downloading over the network, such as digitalsound source from a packaged media sound source or acquired through thedata interface (including analog sound source converted into digital).

In step S1208, determination is made regarding whether or not thevariable m is the maximum value. In the event that a negativedetermination result is obtained here, this means that there is a formatID that has not been processed remains in the n'th ID set, so in stepS1209 the variable m is incremented, and the flow returns to step S1204.

On the other hand, in the event that a positive determination result isobtained in step S1208, this means that all format IDs in the n'th IDset have been processed, so the flow advances to step S1210. In theevent that a positive determination result is obtained in step S1208,this means that the original audio content data serving as the usageprimary content corresponding to the n'th ID set is not locallysituated, and further could not be obtained by downloading.

In step S1210, determination is made regarding whether or not thevariable n is the maximum value (the number of ID sets stored in the IDset information). In the event that a negative determination result isobtained here, this means that there remains an ID set in the ID setinformation which has not yet been made the object of searching. In thiscase, the variable n is incremented in step S1211, and the flow returnsto step S1202. Thus a search is performed regarding the usage primarycontent (original audio content data) for the next ID set.

Upon the processing corresponding to the above-described steps S1202through S1208 being repeated as many times as there are ID sets, apositive determination result is obtained in step S1210, and the flowadvances to step S1212.

In step S1212, processing is executed for outputting what has beenobtained as the original audio content data serving as the usage primarycontent according to the processing so far, onto the GUI screen of thecontent managing/editing tool 101 for example, in a predetermineddisplay format.

With this display of what has been obtained for the usage primarycontents, original audio contents already existing, original audiocontent newly downloaded from a distribution server (original audiocontent server) so as to exist locally, and original audio content notexisting locally, can be displayed in a manner correlated with the usageprimary contents, for example. The user can understand the state ofobtaining the original audio content data, which is the actual entity ofthe usage primary content to be used for playing the subsidiary content.

In the display of what has been obtained for the usage primary contents,a display is preferably made to instruct the user how to obtain originalaudio contents which do not locally exist. This is because locallysaving the original audio content data corresponding to the usageprimary content which could not be locally situated in the automaticobtaining processing of the original audio content involves user work,such as using packaged media as a sound source, or acquisition via thedata interface, or the like.

According to description of FIG. 22 and subsequent drawings made so far,with the present embodiment, the user terminal device 4 (contentmanaging/editing tool 101) manages each usage primary content of thesubsidiary content by correlating the IDs of original audio content data(original content ID, format ID) of formats sharing the same contents ofplayback (hereinafter, also referred to as “usage primary content IDmanagement”. Performing this usage primary content ID management meansthat the device which performs this managing has ID set information,which in turn means that the device is capable of processing alloriginal audio content provided with the format ID (original content ID)stored in the ID set information. This also means that the deviceperforming the usage primary content ID management (the user terminaldevice 4 in this case) is capable of using all original audio contentsprovided with the format IDs (original content IDs) stored in thecorresponding ID set, as usage primary contents.

Now, the user terminal device 4 according to the present embodimentwhich performs the usage primary content ID management searches theoriginal audio content data serving as the usage primary contents. Withthe searching procedures, original audio content data already locallyexisting can be handled as usage primary content, as long as matchingthe original content ID (format ID) held as ID set information (ID setgroup) by the usage primary content ID management. This means that evenif the format is not the same as that of the primary contents actuallyused as the editing material at the time of editing the subsidiarycontent for example, the locally-existing original audio content datacan also be actually used as usage original audio content to be used forplaying of the subsidiary content for example, as long as the content ofthe audio serving as the usage primary content is the same. In the eventthat original audio content data already existing locally is to be usedas the usage primary contents, there is no need to obtain the originalaudio content by downloading or by acquisition through the datainterface, thereby reducing costs and work.

Also, while FIG. 28 shows that in the event that the original audiocontent data corresponding to a certain usage primary content does notexist locally, this is obtained by downloading or the like, but at thistime as well, in the event that there is no distribution on the networkof a primary content actually used as an editing material in the sameformat, the original content ID (format ID) 0 stored in the ID set isreferred to, and original audio content data which is downloadable isdownloaded and acquired. That is to say, even in the event that originalaudio content data of the same format actually used as editing materialat the time of editing the subsidiary content is not obtainable,consideration has been given such that the original audio content dataof the same contents in audio can be obtained and used for audio playingof the subsidiary content.

That is to say, an environment is provided wherein, regardless ofdifference in the data format of the original audio content data for theprimary content to be used in playing of the subsidiary content,original audio content data of a diffident data format is handled as thesame content as long as the contents of audio are the same, and can beused for playing the subsidiary content.

Now, the configuration of an embodiment of the invention is notrestricted to application of the music distribution/sharing systemdescribed so far, and can be applied advantageously to other systems aswell. An example of application to a system of another form will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 29.

In FIG. 29, devices making up a system include an audio content server110, user terminal devices 4 (4A, 4B), communication server 130, andcontent ID management server 150.

The audio content server 110 is a server for distributing audio dataserving as audio contents, and the configuration thereof is equivalentto that of the original audio content server 1 shown in FIG. 6, forexample. Note that while only one audio content server 110 is shownhere, in actual practice, multiple audio content servers 110 areprovided in accordance with various distribution services, recordlabels, and so forth.

The user terminal device 4 is in reality owned by the user, with a greatnumber thereof on the network. Also, the user terminal device 140 is apersonal computer or the like hardware-wise, and has a configurationequivalent to that shown in FIG. 9, for example.

The communication server 130 is a server for providing blogs (or SNSs)in this case, and can provide blogging functions based on theconfiguration shown in FIG. 8, for example.

The content ID management server 150 is a server for performing IDmanagement the same as with the usage primary content ID managementdescribed earlier with reference to FIG. 24, with regard tocurrently-existing original audio contents.

Operations of the system shown in FIG. 29 will be described followingthe numbers of the procedures shown in the brackets [ ].

Procedure 1

We will say that the user of the user terminal device 4A has decided tointroduce a favorite one of the original audio contents saved locally atthe user terminal device 4A, to the readers of his blog. This audiocontent is locally-existing audio content, and has been previouslydownloaded from a certain audio content server 110 and locally saved(downloaded content). At the time of writing to the blog, the user ofthe user terminal device 4A performs an operation for uploading the dataof the downloaded content which he likes, to the blog.

Procedure 2

At the communication server 130, in response to audio content beinguploaded as described above, the uploaded audio content is posted(linked) to the blog, thereby executing the processing regarding contentdata for the blog. Note however, that there are two different forms ofposting audio contents (uploaded contents) that have been uploaded to ablog, depending on the copyrights of the audio contents.

First, in a case wherein the uploaded contents are copyright-free, orthe uploaded contents are created by the user of the user terminaldevice 4A himself, or the like, and no third party other than the userterminal device 4A owns the copyrights thereof, the communication server130 performs blog data processing so as to directly link the data of theuploaded contents to the body portion of the blog which the user hasspecified.

On the other hand, in the event that the copyright of the uploadedcontents belongs to professional musician or the like for example, thecommunication server 130 does not directly link the data of the uploadedcontents to the blog as described above. Instead, the communicationserver 130 first uses the audio data of the uploaded contents generate aunique value according to the audio features thereof, and takes this asa shared content ID. This shared content ID is an ID unique to eachcontent in accordance with the contents of the audio of the uploadedcontents, and accordingly corresponds to the shared primary content IDin the previous embodiment. A program for realizing the content playbackprocessing described in the following Procedures 3 through 5 (contentplayback program) is then linked to the blog. At this time, the programincludes one shared content ID as a playback parameter (settinginformation). For example, Java (a registered trademark) or the like canbe used for this program

Procedure 3

Let us then say that the user terminal device 4B has accessed anddisplayed the contents of the blog where a link to the uploaded contentshas been posted. At this time, in the blog as displayed at the userterminal device 4B, a test string or image portion where the link hasbeen posted by Procedure 2 is clickable. Let us say that the user of theuser terminal device 4B has read the blog and desires to listen to theaudio content, and accordingly clicks on the link.

In this case, if the copyright of the uploaded contents belongs to noone other than the user of the user terminal device 4A, and the audiodata of the uploaded contents is directly linked to, the linked audiodata at the communication server 130 is called up in response to theclicking operation, and streaming playback of download playback or thelike starts.

On the other hand if the copyright of the uploaded contents is held by athird party other than the user of the user terminal device 4A, and thecontent playback program is linked to, the content playback program iscalled up and activated at the user terminal device 4B. Operations ofthe content playback program realize the following Procedures 4, 5, 6(6-1, 6-2).

Procedure 4

First, the content playback program which has been activated at the userterminal device 4B executes communication control for transmitting an IDset request corresponding to the uploaded contents from the userterminal device 4B to the content ID management server 150. At the timeof this request, the content playback program transmits the sharedcontent ID held as a parameter.

Procedure 5

The content ID management server 150 can be configured as having acontent ID database instead of the primary content ID database 51. Also,this content ID database can be configured as having the shared primarycontent ID in the structure of the primary content ID database 51replaced with the shared content ID described above in Procedure 2. Inorder to obtain and newly register shared content IDs and format IDs inthe content ID database, a system can implemented to receivepresentation thereof from music distribution services, general users,and so forth.

At the content ID management server 150, an ID set correlated with theshared content ID transmitted in Procedure 4 along with the request issearched from the content ID database. The found ID set is thentransmitted to the user terminal device 4B (content playback program).

The ID set transmitted in this way is received and obtained by thecontent playback program of the user terminal device 4B. The ID set thusobtained is managed by the content playback program so as to becorrelated with the uploaded contents.

At the time of obtaining and managing the ID set in this way, anarrangement may be made wherein the content playback program for exampleassigns an order of priority as to the format IDs making up the ID set,following a predetermined rule, as described with FIG. 24B.Alternatively, a basic order of priority might be assigned following apredetermined rule at the stage of being managed as the content IDdatabase at the content ID management server 150 side.

Procedure 6

The content playback program, which has obtained the ID setcorresponding to the uploaded contents in Procedure 5, then attempts toobtain audio content data of the same contents as the uploaded contents,in accordance with processing shown in FIG. 28, for example. Note thatin this case, all that is necessary is to obtain one audio content dataper ID set obtained in Procedure 5, and that there is no need to executea loop corresponding to the variable n according to the number of IDsets.

Let us say that audio content data already locally saved has been foundas the audio content data of the same contents of audio as the uploadedcontents as a result of the content data obtaining processing such asdescribed above having been executed (equivalent to a case of a positivedetermination result having been obtained in step S1205). In this case,the content playback program performs playback output of the audiocontent data saved locally, as shown as Procedure 6-1. In the event thatthe audio content data is to be played in this way, what is actually beplayed is the sound source which the user of the user terminal device 4Balready owns, so the copyright of the content being played isappropriately protected.

Also, let us say that, as a result of the content data obtainingprocessing having been executed, it has been found that audio contentsof the same contents of audio as the uploaded contents can be downloadedfrom the audio content server 110 (equivalent to a case of a positivedetermination result having been obtained in step S1206). In this case,as shown as Procedure 6-2, the audio content of the same contents ofaudio as the uploaded contents is downloaded from the audio contentserver 110, and played. One conceivable form of this content playback isso-called download playback, wherein the content is first saved or heldlocally at the user terminal device 4B (in HDD or RAM, for example), andthen the saved audio content data is played by the content playbackprogram. Another form is so called streaming, where the content is notsaved locally at the user terminal device 4B (note that with streamingthe audio content data is not stored locally in the HDD or othermemory). In any case, the download playback in this case involves theaudio content data being uploaded by proper procedures from the audiocontent server 110 (e.g., if pay contents, payment processing is alsoperformed), so the copyright of the content being played isappropriately protected.

Simply posting audio data files to blogs and homepages, to uploadcontents of which the copyrights belong to a third party, an act whichis sometimes performed, is unauthorized in nature from the perspectiveof copyright protection. Accordingly, introducing contents of which thecopyrights belong to a third party in blogs and homepages has beenrestricted to posting links to vendor sites selling the contents. Insuch cases, clocking on the link only accesses the vendor selling thecontents, and does not necessarily mean that the contents areimmediately played in a listenable manner.

However, with the above-described system, contents of which thecopyrights belong to a third party can still be played simply byclicking on a link, by local playback or download playback, withoutinfringing on copyrights.

Other procedures for uploading contents and playing contents under thesystem shown in FIG. 29 can be conceived. For example, while the abovedescription involves the user terminal device 4A uploading audio contentdata to the communication server 130 in Procedure 1, it can be conceivedthat the communication server 130 handling the uploaded content datawill incur a great processing burden. Accordingly, a configuration forthe system shown in FIG. 29 can be conceived as follows.

If we say that the user terminal device 4A is provided with a functionto generate shared content IDs, at the time of uploading the content tothe communication server 130 a shared content ID for the audio contentdata to be uploaded is generated, and this is transmitted to thecommunication server 130. It should be noted that at this time, theaudio content data to be uploaded is not uploaded itself. Also,copyright-free content, audio content which the user of the userterminal device 4 has created and owns the copyrights of, and so forth,are assumed to be stored and managed at an appropriate audio contentserver 110.

With the uploading operation which is Procedure 1, the communicationserver 130 receives and obtains the shared content ID of the audiocontent to be uploaded. As Procedure 2, the communication server 130posts the content playback program including the shared content ID as aparameter in the blog. Note that in this case, the processing ofProcedure 2 is performed regardless of whether the copyright of theaudio content to be uploaded belongs to a third party other than theuser of the user terminal device 4A the operations of the followingProcedures 3 through 6 (6-1, 6-2) are the same as described above. Withsuch a configuration, the communication server 130 does not need toprocess, save, or manage the audio content data, markedly reducingprocessing load. Also, there is no need to transmit/receive the audiocontent data in Procedure 1, so the uploading operations of the audiocontent data is also faster, and traffic is reduced.

Also, an arrangement may be conceived as another example of the above,wherein, at the time of uploading audio content in Procedure 1, theformat ID corresponding to the audio content to be uploaded, that issaved at the user terminal device 4A, is transmitted to thecommunication server 130 along with the shared content ID. In this case,the communication server 130 embeds in the content playback program theshared content ID and format ID (original content ID) as playbackparameters, in Procedure 2. At the time of the ID set request inProcedure 4, the format ID is transmitted along with the shared contentID. Thus, the content ID management server 150 can update the content IDdatabase in accordance with the procedures of the primary content IDmanagement server 5 shown in FIG. 26 for example, using the sharedcontent ID and format ID transmitted as the ID set request.

Note that information identifying the format ID (format identificationinformation) may be information for identifying the location of contentdata by correlated format on a network or locally, such as a URL or filepath. With embodiments of the present invention, such information isalso viewed as identification information by which content data can beidentified within the range of each format.

Also, the present invention is not restricted to configurations servingas the embodiment described so far, and various types can be conceived.

For example, with the embodiment described above, while as for theprimary content, digital audio data has been described as being the mainconstituent in the actual entity (main portion), but an arrangement maybe made wherein, at the stage of the primary content, the same dataformat may be had as the subsidiary content. That is to say, for theprimary content, first, a producer creates several sound sources asdigital audio data, performs editing processing using each of thesesound sources as editing material contents, and creates a playbackcontrol file equivalent to a subsidiary content playback control file asthe editing result. This playback control file and a file wherein thedigital audio data serving as the sound source has been packaged, aretaken as primary content.

In this case, the data for reproducing the actual content contentsserving as the primary content is the data of the playback control file.

Also, while a specific example of a GUI screen or the like serving as amusic editing/sharing application 100 has not been shown in thedescription so far, widely various configurations of a GUI of the musicediting/sharing application 100 can be conceived.

Also, the configurations of the original content server 1, subsidiarycontent server 2, communication server 3, user terminal device 4, andprimary content ID management server 5, shown in FIGS. 6 through 9 and25, and so forth, are only exemplary and may actually be modified assuitable. Also, a form may be assumed wherein at least one of the aboveservers are divided into multiple servers. Alternatively, at least twoof these servers may be configured integrated.

One suitable arrangement is for the above embodiment is for the primarycontent ID management server 5 to be included in the subsidiary contentserver 2. Also, with the case of the modification in FIG. 29, anacceptable configuration is for the content ID management server 150 tobe integrated with the communication server 130.

Also, the functional configuration of the music editing/sharingapplication 100 is not restricted to the content described with FIGS.10, 11, and so forth, and can be widely varied.

Also, the structure of the subsidiary content playback control fileshown in FIGS. 12 through 14, and so forth is only exemplary, andconceptual, so various modifications and extensions may be made based onthis.

Also, the processing procedures shown as flowcharts and sequencediagrams and so forth by FIGS. 17 through 22, 26 through 29, and soforth, i.e., program configurations, are only exemplary, and actuallymay be modified as appropriate.

Also, while content to be played and reproduced from primary contentdata and subsidiary content data has been described so far as beingaudio contents such as tunes for example, but may be video contents madeup of video/audio as moving images. In this case, the data forreproducing the actual content contents serving as the primary contentis video signal data (and audio signal data to be played synchronouslywith the video signals). Also, this may be applied to still imagecontents such as photographs, images, and so forth, for example.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. A server device comprising: communication means configured to performcommunication via a network; identification information management meansconfigured to manage format identification information unique for eachcontent data within a range of each data format, the formatidentification information corresponding to contents of each content;and identification information transmitting means configured totransmit, to a client device, format identification informationcorrelated with specified content in response to specification of thecontent via network from said client device, wherein said identificationinformation management means is configured to perform management usingcorrelation information formed by correlating versatile identificationinformation which is unique identification information shared amongcontent data having the same content but different data formats, andformat identification corresponding to the same contents, and whereinsaid identification information transmitting means is configured totransmit the format identification information correlated with theversatile identification information of the specified content,transmitted from said client device, as information for specifying thecontent.
 2. The server device according to claim 1, further comprising:determination means configured to determine whether the versatileidentification information corresponding to the specified content,transmitted from said client device as information for specifying thecontent, and the format identification corresponding to said specifiedcontent to be held at said client device, are registered in saidcorrelation information; wherein, in the event that determination ismade by said determination means that the versatile identificationinformation corresponding to the specified content, transmitted fromsaid client device as information for specifying the content, and theformat identification corresponding to said specified content to be heldat said client device, are not registered in said correlationinformation, said identification information management means newlyregister format identification information corresponding to saidspecified content, so as to correlate to versatile identificationinformation corresponding to said specified content already registeredin said correlation information.
 3. An information processing method ofa server device, comprising: performing communication via a network;managing format identification information unique for each content datawithin a range of each data format, the formal identificationinformation corresponding to contents of each content; and transmitting,to a client device, format identification information correlated withspecified content in response to specification of the content vianetwork from said client device, wherein managing the formatidentification information comprises correlating versatileidentification information that is unique identification informationshared among content data having the same content but different dataformats, and format identification corresponding to the same content,and wherein transmitting the format identification information comprisestransmitting the format identification correlated with the versatileidentification information of the specified content.
 4. At least onecomputer-readable storage medium having encoded thereoncomputer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least onecomputer to carr out a method, the method comprising: performingcommunication via a network; managing format identification informationunique for each content data within a range of each data format, theformat identification information corresponding to the contents of eachcontent; and transmitting, to a client device, format identificationinformation correlated with specified content in response tospecification of the content via network from said client device,wherein managing the format identification information comprisescorrelating versatile identification information that is uniqueidentification information shared among content data having the samecontent but different data formats, and format identificationcorresponding to the same content, and wherein transmitting the formatidentification information comprises transmitting the formatidentification correlated with the versatile identification informationof the specified content.
 5. A client device comprising: communicationmeans configured to perform communication via a network; contentspecifying means configured to cause execution of communication vianetwork, for specifying a content, to a server device; andidentification information management means configured to receive andobtain format identification information which is identificationinformation corresponding to a specified content transmitted from saidserver device in response to the communication for specifying saidcontent, the format identification information being unique for eachcontent data within a range of each data format, and manage the receivedand obtained format identification information as corresponding to saidspecified content, wherein said content specifying means is configuredto cause transmission, to said server device, of versatileidentification information corresponding to said specified content asversatile identification information which is unique identificationinformation shared among content data having at least same content butdifferent data formats.
 6. The client device according to claim 5,further comprising: content data processing means configured to search,from content data locally existing, content data correlated with formatidentification information managed by said identification informationmanagement means, and set the found content data as content data usableby a predetermined application.
 7. The client device according to claim5, further comprising: download executing means configured to executedownloading of content data existing on a network, based on the formatidentification information managed by said identification informationmanagement means.
 8. An information processing method of a clientdevice, comprising: performing communication via a network; causingexecution of communication via network, for specifying a content, to aserver device; receiving and obtaining format identification informationwhich is identification information corresponding to a specified contenttransmitted from said server device in response to the communication forspecifying said content, the format identification information beingunique for each content data within a range of each data format; andmanaging the received and obtained format identification information ascorresponding to said specified content wherein causing execution ofcommunication comprises transmitting, to said server device, versatileidentification information corresponding to said specified content, theversatile identification information being unique identificationinformation shared among content data having at least same content butdifferent data formats.
 9. At least one computer-readable storage mediumhaving encoded thereon computer-executable instructions that, whenexecuted, cause at least one computer to carry out a method, the methodcomprising: performing communication via a network; causing execution ofcommunication via network, for specifying a content, to a server device;receiving and obtaining format identification information which isidentification information corresponding to a specified contenttransmitted from said server device in response to the communication forspecifying said content, the format identification information uniquefor each content data within a range of each data format; and managingthe received and obtained format identification information ascorresponding to said specified content, wherein causing execution ofcommunication comprises transmitting, to said server device, versatileidentification information corresponding to said specified content, theversatile identification information being unique identificationinformation shared among content data having at least same content butdifferent data formats.
 10. An information processing system comprising:a client device functioning as a client; a server device functioning asa server and capable of communication with said client device via anetwork; first identification information management means at saidserver device configured to manage format identification informationunique for each content data within a range of each data format, theformat identification information corresponding to the contents of eachcontent; content specifying means at said client device configured tocause execution of communication via network, for specifying a content,to said server device; identification information transmitting means atsaid server device configured to transmit, to said client device, formatidentification information correlated with a specified content inresponse to the specification of a content via network from said clientdevice; and second identification information management means at saidclient device configured to manage the received and obtained formatidentification information as corresponding to said content specified bysaid content specifying means, wherein said first identificationinformation management means is configured to perform management usingcorrelation information formed by correlating versatile identificationinformation which is unique identification information shared amongcontent data having the same content but different data formats, andformat identification corresponding to the same contents, and whereinsaid identification information transmitting means is configured totransmit the format identification information correlated with theversatile identification information of the specified content,transmitted from said client device, as information for specifying thecontent.
 11. An information processing method of an informationprocessing system including a client device functioning as a client anda server device functioning as a server which are capable ofcommunication via a network, said method comprising: at said serverdevice, managing format identification information unique for eachcontent data within a range of each data format, the formatidentification information corresponding to contents of each content; atsaid client device, causing execution of communication via network, forspecifying a content, to said server device; at said server device,transmitting, to said client device, format identification informationcorrelated with a specified content in response to specification of acontent via network from said client device; and at said client device,managing the received and obtained format identification information ascorresponding to said specified content, wherein managing the formatidentification information at said server device comprises correlatingversatile identification information that is unique identificationinformation shared among content data having the same content butdifferent data formats, and format identification corresponding to thesame content, and wherein transmitting the format identificationinformation to said client device comprises transmitting the formatidentification correlated with the versatile identification informationof the specified content.
 12. A server device comprising: acommunication unit configured to perform communication via a network; anidentification information management unit configured to manage formatidentification information unique for each content data within the rangeof each data format, the format identification information correspondingto contents of each content; and an identification informationtransmitting unit configured to transmit, to a client device, formatidentification information correlated with a specified content inresponse to the specification of a content via network from said clientdevice, wherein said first identification information management unit isconfigured to perform management using correlation information formed bycorrelating versatile identification information which is uniqueidentification information shared among content data having the samecontent but different data formats, and format identificationcorresponding to the same contents, and wherein said identificationinformation transmitting unit is configured to transmit the formatidentification information correlated with the versatile identificationinformation of the specified content, transmitted from said clientdevice, as information for specifying the content.
 13. A client devicecomprising: a communication unit configured to perform communication viaa network; a content specifying unit configured to cause execution ofcommunication via network, for specifying a content, to a server device;and an identification information management unit configured to receiveand obtain format identification information which is identificationinformation corresponding to a specified content transmitted from saidserver device in response to the communication for specifying saidcontent, the format identification information being unique for eachcontent data within the range of each data format, and manage thereceived and obtained format identification information as correspondingto said specified content wherein said content specifying unit isconfigured to cause transmission, to said server device, of versatileidentification information corresponding to said specified content asversatile identification information which is unique identificationinformation shared among content data having at least same content butdifferent data formats.
 14. An information processing system comprising:a client device functioning as a client; a server device functioning asa server and capable of communication with said client device via anetwork; a first identification information management unit at saidserver device configured to manage format identification informationunique for each content data within a range of each data format, theformat identification information corresponding to contents of eachcontent; a content specifying unit at said client device configured tocause execution of communication via network, for specifying a content,to said server device; an identification information transmitting unitat said server device configured to transmit, to said client device,format identification information correlated with a specified content inresponse to the specification of a content via network from said clientdevice; and a second identification information management unit at saidclient device configured to manage the received and obtained formatidentification information as corresponding to said content specified bysaid content specifying unit, wherein said first identificationinformation management unit is configured to perform management usingcorrelation information formed by correlating versatile identificationinformation which is unique identification information shared amongcontent data having the same content but different data formats, andformat identification corresponding to the same contents, and whereinsaid identification information transmitting unit is configured totransmit the format identification information correlated with theversatile identification information of the specified content,transmitted from said client device, as information for specifying thecontent.